Labor News & Commentary May 2 Immigrant detainees win class certification in dollar-a-day litigation & more

[Omaha Steve]

https://onlabor.org/may-2-2025/

By Meredith Gudesblatt

Meredith Gudesblatt is a student at Harvard Law School and a member of the Labor and Employment Lab.

In today’s News and Commentary, Immigrant detainees win class certification in dollar-a-day litigation, Missouri’s new sick leave law is in effect, and the Biden-Era Worker Heat Rule shows signs of life.

The United States District Court for the Northern District of New York is allowing a lawsuit that challenges ICE’s so-called “Voluntary Work Program” at the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility to proceed. Filed in 2020, the lawsuit seeks accountability for unjust enrichment and failure to pay proper wages in violation of New York labor laws as well as violations of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act. In March 2024, Akima Global Services, the private security company defendant, filed a motion to dismiss and for summary judgment but the court denied both in full. And last month, the court certified an Unjust Enrichment Class, a Forced Labor Class, and a Labor Law Class and named Kaufman Lieb and Lebowitz & Frick and the Worker Justice Center of New York as class counsel. The court’s order covers over 5,000 immigrants who were detained and forced to work any time from as far back as 2015.

As of yesterday, Missouri workers have increased flexibility if they get sick and need to miss work. Missouri Jobs with Justice co-led a statewide coalition that organized to get mandatory earned paid sick leave and an increased minimum wage on the ballot. Last November, Missouri voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition A, which has already increased the minimum wage to $13.75. In what is now a familiar sequence, the progressive ballot measure’s success was swiftly followed by judicial and legislative challenges. Earlier this week, the Missouri Supreme Court rejected the post-election lawsuit that alleged Proposition A was misleading, thereby allowing the law to take effect. However, this win for Missouri workers may be short lived. Missouri is only the sixteenth state to institute a statewide sick leave policy, but Missouri House Republicans passed a bill to repeal the policy in its entirety. Missouri Democrats have been filibustering to stop this from passing the Senate before the legislative session ends on May 17.

Lastly, Bloomberg reports that the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced that it will move forward with a public hearing in June on the first-ever federal safety standard for extreme heat in the workplace. OSHA stopped accepting public comments on the proposed regulations in mid-January, but President Trump signed a presidential memorandum on his first day in office instructing federal agencies to withdraw all rules that had not yet been published in the Federal Register. David Keeling, the current nominee to lead OSHA (as Esther highlighted in February), has yet to receive any attention from the Senate, but his background inspires little confidence that the rule would survive. Acknowledging this reality, worker advocates have continued to push state and local governments to enact workplace heat safety rules. As of July 2024, five states had permanent occupational heat stress standards for the workplace. Maryland joined this group last September when it became the first state on the east coast to issue a final heat standard to protect workers. New Jersey representatives are currently considering legislation to mandate heat standard protections and New York representatives reintroduced a bill to regulate indoor and outdoor worksites with temperature protection standards. But for workers in states such as Texas and Florida whose legislatures have passed bills preempting local protections, OSHA’s announcement is an unexpected yet welcome surprise.