Ideas Tracking Workplace COVID-19 Litigation Trends, From Discrimination to Class Action Lawsuits PETER J. WOZNIAK AND MARK W. WALLIN BARNES & THORNBURG LLP
The COVID-19 pandemic has done a considerable amount for workplace litigation. Peter Wozniak, partner with Barnes & Thornburg, and Mark Wallin, of counsel with Barnes & Thornburg, discuss trends they’re seeing in litigation tracking. Since March 2020, the Barnes & Thornburg LLP Wage and Hour Practice Group has been tracking COVID-19 related workplace litigation. The goal of this tracker is to allow employers to watch the trends as they develop, and (hopefully) avoid some of the pitfalls. As the pandemic progressed, several notable trends have developed in the allegations. Far and away the largest number of complaints have come from the “Wrongful Termination, Retaliation and Bias” category. Some of these complaints allege that the plaintiff was terminated under
the pretext of COVID-19, but that the true reason for the termination is one or more protected characteristics possessed by the plaintiff. Age and disability discrimination are among the most prevalent allegations. For example, in Pizzirulli v. Storer Transportation Service, et al., a 64-year-old charter bus driver in Stanislaus County, California, alleged that his temporary layoff was converted to a permanent layoff because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The plaintiff alleges that only three other employees were permanently laid off, and that these other employees were all about the same age as him. Another emerging trend is claims arising out of federal leave laws such as the FMLA and the FFCRA. These complaints tend to allege that plaintiffs were terminated while on protected leave or that their jobs were not available when they attempted to return from leave. A prototypical example comes from Summit County, Ohio, in Leppo v. Environmental Design Group, LLC. In this CORPORATE COUNSEL BUSINESS JOURNAL
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