The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that during fiscal year 2022 they awarded 103 awards a total of $229 million.  Since 2012 the program has awarded $1.3 billion to 328 whistleblowers. The SEC reported the over one billion dollars in awards are a result of $6.3 billion in monetary sanctions. The SEC implemented Whistleblower Rule Amendments in December 2020 that created a new presumption those eligible for an award should receive the maximum 30% when the award would not exceed $5 million.  The SEC reported that during fiscal year 2020, over 90% of the awards were able to use this new maximum percentage rule.

Major pharmaceutical antitrust news for December 2022, as of January 1st, 2023.

On January 5, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced a proposed rule banning non-compete agreements, as well as the settlements it reached with companies for alleged abuse of non-compete agreements. The FTC listed several main goals of their rule proposal, including raising wages for lower and middle-income workers who are increasingly seeing non-compete agreements added to more job types, and concerns over competition. 

Schneider Wallace Cottrell Kim LLP, a national plaintiff side law firm, is pleased to announce the December 2022 promotion of two new additional partners. Matthew S. Weiler and Ori Edelstein join a growing partner tier at the firm.

Previously in March 2022, the firm announced their new Los Angeles office, its second in California and fifth nationwide. The firm also announced the addition of four new partners: Amy Eskin, Ryan Hicks, Nathan Piller and David Leimbach.

A 464-person class action accusing Segerdahl Corp. and Greatbanc Trust Co. of orchestrating a stock buyout that caused Segerdahl’s employee stock plan to lose millions of dollars can go to trial on most claims, a Chicago federal judge ruled.

The Segerdahl plan participants presented evidence that the defendants shopped the company to financial buyers and not to strategic buyers despite indications that a strategic buyer would have paid $55 million more, Judge Andrea R. Wood said in an opinion issued Friday. A trial is needed to determine whether the defendants fulfilled their fiduciary duties in orchestrating this transaction or whether they put other interests ahead of the stock plan, she said. Reproduced with permission. Published Dec. 16, 2022. Copyright 2022 by The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc.

The California Department of Industrial Relations maintains a database of wage theft claims presented to the office by employees against individuals and corporations. California reported 174 judgments in June 2022, after excluding duplicates. The total value of all judgments was $6,638,263. The Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) reported 3080 wage claims in June of 2022.

“Restaurants and Other Eating Places” lead as an industry category with 136 claims. When including “Full Service Restaurants” with 61 additional claims, this group category had 197 wage claims in June.

The United States Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, reported a total of $164.6 million in back wages collected for workers during fiscal year 2021 from two categories:  $138,674,500 collected for unpaid overtime, and $25,932,824 collected for failure to pay minimum wage. Both the minimum wage violations and overtime violations are for companies and individuals who violated the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), within the United States Department of Labor, has opened an investigation into Amazon’s safety at their warehouses.  OSHA inspected warehouses for Amazon in Chicago, Orlando, and New York City. In a statement given to media, the Department of Labor said:

“OSHA received referrals from the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York regarding allegations of safety and health violations at several Amazon facilities.”

“Acting on the referrals, OSHA has opened inspections at Amazon workplaces in New York, Illinois and Florida.”

The California Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) maintains a public database of wage theft claims presented to the office by employees against individuals and corporations. When a wage claim is filed, the Labor Commissioner’s Office investigates the claim, and publicly posts information about the name of the organization or individual, the date of the claim, and additional information such as the type of industry.

Updates for May 2022, data from a search of the government labor board databases on July 5th, 2022.

The Mississippi Equal Pay for Equal Work Act went into effect on July 1st, 2022.  The law, which repeats the standards of the federal Equal Pay Act, forbids employers from paying lower wages to one sex compared to wages earned by another sex. Mississippi is one of the last states to not enact a state law regarding equal pay.

The Mississippi law allows for employers to pay different wages based upon “any other factor other than sex”, allowing for wage differences based on seniority, or claims of differing responsibilities. States such as California have much stronger laws, requiring employers to pay equal wages for work that is “substantially similar” as a composite of skill, effort and responsibility, and bar various defenses for unequal pay such as prior salary history.