For the last five years, Schneider Wallace Cottrell Konecky has intensively litigated on behalf of Washington University workers in a class action lawsuit for the University’s alleged breach of fiduciary duties in managing and administering its retirement plan. Washington University has agreed to pay $7.5 million to resolve the claims alleged in the case.

In January 2022, the parties engaged in neutral mediation and reached a preliminary settlement of $7.5 million on April 15, 2022. The class consists of “all persons who participated in the Plan at any time during the Settlement Class Period, including any Beneficiary of a deceased person who participated in the Plan at any time during the Settlement Class Period, and any Alternate Payee of a person subject to a Qualified Domestic Relations Order that was in effect before the end of the Settlement Class Period”. The settlement class period is defined as June 8, 2011 through March 31, 2022.

The Department of Labor (DOL) maintains a database of prior verdicts from the Wage and Hour Division. When the Wage and Hour Division finds a violation or wage theft and produces a judgement against an employer, it holds the funds for affected employees for three years.  After three years, the funds are distributed to the US Treasury.

How to search Department of Labor for owed wages:

The California Department of Industrial Relations maintains a 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 March 2022, data from a search of the government labor databases on April 26th, 2022.

Governor Inslee signed The Silenced No More Act (Bill 1795). Washington state now joins California as the second state to make non-disparagement and non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) in employer settlements and contracts unenforceable, for harassment and discrimination.

The DOL took the position truck drivers who are scheduled for more than eight hours in a sleeper berth deserve to be paid for all time above eight hours. The case in question involved truck drivers with a scheduled 10 hour sleep break in each 24 hour day.

The Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act prohibits the enforcement of arbitration clauses for cases alleging sexual assault or alleging sexual harassment.

The United States Department of Labor announced a federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia entered a judgment of $7.2 million in back wages and liquidated damages on behalf of 1,105 employees of a staffing agency. The Department of Labor alleges that the medical staffing agency intentionally violated federal law and denied the eleven hundred plus nursing aids, practical nurses and registered nurses overtime wages.

On March 8th, 2022 the Southern District of New York announced charges of securities fraud and wire fraud against the founder of Ormeus Coin. The charges allege the coin was falsely presented to investors as backed by a $250 million cryptocurrency mining operation with $5 million in monthly revenue, despite neither being true.

On the same day, the Eastern District of New York announced indictments against three owners and operators of ECoinPlus, EmpowerCoin, and Jet-Coin.  The indictment includes charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering. Two of the three owner operators were also charged with attempting to destroy evidence and obstruct justice.

The judge noted that the employers failed to include information required by New York Wage Theft Prevention Laws: “The statements failed to provide the employer’s phone number… did not even identify the name of the employer… simply provided ‘Embassy Suites’ as the employer’s name without naming the actual individual or legal name of the company”.

The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York released a statement that two founders of BitMEX would plead guilty to violating the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and failing to maintain anti-money laundering programs at their BitMEX cryptocurrency exchange.  The founders agreed to pay a $10 million fine.