#legal

Five former Dell Technologies employees have filed a lawsuit against the company, alleging that poor oversight of its 401(k) retirement plan led to massive losses for workers. The complaint, filed on Jan. 28 in federal court in Austin, Texas, claims Dell failed to properly manage the plan and cost participants more than $318 million.

According to the proposed class action, Dell violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act by continuing to offer investment funds that consistently underperformed, even as stronger and less expensive alternatives were available. The plaintiffs argue that this prolonged inaction put employees’ retirement savings at risk and eroded long term returns.

Now that you have been acquired by Texas Instruments, allow me to foreshadow what’s in store based on how the Lehi acquisition went.

66% of you are getting laid off. No one is safe. Start looking NOW!

Your leadership will tell you how great TI is. How we do not do layoffs and have great profit sharing of 20%. This is a LIE. We have quarterly layoffs and profit sharing has been severely curtailed for 2026.

Older employees will be “managed out“ to avoid illegal age discrimination. Document everything! Save every email! Do not sign any forms without consulting a labor lawyer! HR IS YOUR ENEMY!

You will be encouraged to bust your butt during the transition. Don’t. You are probably going to lose your job. Spend that energy finding a new one.

They sent me a disclosure telling me for 90 days although I am currently within a lay off period I am not allowed to work for another firm.

First question is how tf would they even know if I got another job?
Isnt this illegal?
This place is the worst place I think I ever worked, in a way im glad the lay off came.

I realize the USA is 30-40 years behind other countries in terms of protecting employee rights from abusive and unfair working conditions, but has anyone looked into the legality of this new comp plan? Is it even legal?

Whatever happened with this?

Project Mongoose was supposed to wipe out many jobs in 2025 and replace them with AI. And from 2026 onward, we were supposed to have at lease 1-2% in layoffs every year.

So far I have heard that there are no layoffs planned. I have also heard that lists to lay off employees are being created and they'll lay off as soon as they get a green light. I have also heard that Betriebsrat and HR and executives are taking legal action against each others regarding layoffs. I have also heard that they are empowering managers to give a bad performance rating to anyone they want gone and use this new performance management to lay off employees every year.

I also heard that many colleagues in the US were laid off but when I ask my manager, she says it is fake news and I should focus on my work.

What happened to Project Mongoose?

PS: I would prefer non-political answers. Also, please keep your racism to yourself.

In a powerful legal complaint filed this month in federal court in Denver, AP, a former admissions representative for Colorado Technical University (CTU), alleges that the for-profit, online school, owned by giant Perdoceo Education Corp., systematically deceived and abused students.

https://www.republicreport.org/2026/ex-recruiter-sues-for-profit-college-chain-perdoceo-alleging-systematic-fraud/

https://nypost.com/2026/01/26/business/citigroup-sued-by-former-executive-who-says-it-mishandled-s-xual-harassment/

Legal counsel is currently evaluating the legality of the newly implemented vehicle program and is considering the initiation of a class action lawsuit. An email intake will be created for interested parties seeking to join the action. Comment if interested, so have an idea if we have the numbers.

Kristi Moody, the legal brain who said it was OK to spin off the REIT, and that we'd win the lawsuit that we actually lost and put us into bankruptcy.... Has left the building.

A casualty of restructuring the department.

Adios Kristi. Best of luck in your new endeavors.

Has anyone sought legal advice regarding expats not receiving severance if they decline their job offer? It seems unreasonable to force someone to relocate to a new city. I know the company’s stance is assumed mobility but do external lawyers agree with that?

A former Rogue Ales & Spirits employee is suing Oregon Brewing. The lawsuit alleges a violation of the WARN Act. The suit claims Oregon Brewing failed to provide 60-day notice for mass layoffs. Over 300 Rogue employees were laid off in December. The plaintiff seeks class certification, unpaid wages, and benefits.

I’m asking for those who were bullied, treated unfairly, wrongfully terminated, or laid off under questionable circumstances.

A corporate-focused attorney independently raised this question. One of my coworkers had a very strong case, but ultimately withdrew after the company terminated the manager involved. In another case, an employee reportedly received a significant settlement, suggesting these concerns may not have been isolated.

At this point, I am only trying to understand how many people may have been affected and whether there is a shared pattern worth evaluating further. This is not an accusation, and no action would be taken without professional legal advice.

If this applies to you, you’re welcome to respond or reach out privately.

It’s been a couple of months since the lawsuit dropped. Does anyone know what is occurring with this? Has anyone been let go because of it?

There’s a clause in the severance that states “you can not work for any competitor with in 12 months of accepting”. This seems highly unfair after a whole career in wireless. What an I supposed to do? Finds a completely different field and forget my years of experience? That’s so unfair… take the money and shut up or starve while you look for work!

Salary workers…. Did you get your post increase in January 1st?
WA state minimum wage went up meaning the minimum a salary worker can make in WA state as of Jan 1 2026 raised to $80,168.40 annually. It’s weird the focus was on layoffs and we didn’t get our increase
I will be contacting a lawyer and LNI

https://www.pacermonitor.com/public/case/62513869/Avaya_LLC_v_ConvergeOne,_Inc

A consultant with attorneys would gain traction if they were able to determine how many “needs improvements” were handed out in prior years vs 2025 reviews. If the number increased dramatically, then can’t an argument be made that this is their attempt to term employees for they don’t have to pay out severance? I know a person who has been with the company over 20 years and never received an NI before until this year.

#stayfree a buddy if mine got laid off and took a bunch of his personal files while now tmobile is charging her with stealing company data. She's freaking out stay free everyone

Do not sign anything, hire lawyer right away!

Ex-Schwabbie here. If you are dissatisfied with work conditions, pay, treatment from leadership I would highly encourage you to check out the NLRA. It gives private sector non-supervisory employees the right to discuss such issues on social media, teams, a huddle, or even a screen saver. These are rights guaranteed regardless if you are part of a union or not. Check out the definitions of concerted activity. You have the right to bring up these questions and concerns to your leaders. If they retaliate then you have yourself a very strong legal case. Retaliation includes your work (phone calls) being more scrutinized than that of your peers. There is a reason Schwab doesn't train you on the NLRA.

Hi, all. I was wondering if BNY discloses reasons for termination to a new employer (also a bank) during the background check. I was told that legally previous employer can only share / verify dates of employment and title. But is there a possibility of this information being shared whether it's by phone or some type of system? Thank you.

So, in 2012, Citibank paid $158.3 million to settle federal allegations tied to defective FHA loans. In the DOJ’s complaint is a line that still matters. In 2010, Ross Leckie, then a senior leader at CitiMortgage, told staff to “drive this rate down by brute force” to meet a 5% defect target, even as quality-control teams flagged serious loan problems. The goal wasn’t fixing defects. It was fixing the number. That email is quoted in a federal complaint.
Today, the same individual is a Vice President at Fannie Mae. This isn’t about criminal charges. It’s about leadership judgment, tone, and culture.
“Drive it down by brute force” isn’t just a bad line. It reflects a culture where optics beat substance and targets beat controls. That culture is exactly what regulators, taxpayers, and markets expect GSEs to leave behind. It also raises an unavoidable question:
If defect rates were something to be pushed down rather than examined, what else could be getting massaged, minimized, or buried?
This is how systemic failures form. Not from one bad loan, but from leadership that treats controls as obstacles instead of safeguards.
FHFA talks about fraud prevention and data integrity. Culture change gets mentioned a lot too. But culture doesn’t change through training decks or rewritten policies. It changes when leadership changes. Leadership overhaul isn’t about punishment. It’s about credibility. It’s about signaling that the old way of protecting metrics, protecting reputations, and protecting insiders is over.
Because until leadership changes, the culture won’t. And until the culture changes, the same question will linger:
If they were willing to “drive it down by brute force” then, what are they driving down now?
If the culture is broken, the fix starts at the top. Paper trails don’t disappear.
And neither do patterns.

Don’t forget the law in NJ protects you from mass layoffs of 50 or more employing a 90 day period.

The off made by the company to choose to move to another location and forgo severance is not legal in the state of Nj.

If they offer you 18 months of employment when agreeing to move and you decide to stay, they’ll still owe must pay your severance regardless.

Tell them yes you will move. Work the time offered while interviewing.

When the time comes, tell them they still owe you severance per NJ state law. If they refuse, hire an attorney.

With the uncertainty within the federal sector and new PEGA trial, how soon before layoffs are announced?

Does the board face any legal risk given that they haven't acted in the best interest of the company?

Shareholders seek legal advice on the fairness of bd deal to their stock.merger shifted out to July.batra trying to go it alone is going to backfire on a disastrous merger.

https://www.wealthmanagement.com/regulation-compliance/federal-court-sanctions-envestnet-for-destroying-evidence-in-trade-secrets-case

What’s the culture in the legal department?

Anyone look at their upcoming paystub yet? The way they calculated their fuzzy math on 27 pay periods is they reduced the wage Rate. Is this legal? It’s like we all got a demotion. Unless you survive to 2027 to get the catch up payment. I’ve never seen a company handle things like this before. Usually, they catch you up in the same year and do it in a month that has five Fridays. I’m sorry there is zero way you could make it make sense except that this is a way to leverage our money for their pockets. Completely demotivated to ever go that extra mile again at this company,

FYSA: Mr. Schulman, H-1B visa price hike deemed lawful by federal judge.

A federal judge has rejected a challenge to the White House's proposed $100,000 application fee for H-1B visas. The court ruled the price increase is lawful, citing the president's "broad statutory authority." Separately, the Trump administration announced it will end the lottery-based work visa system in favor of a new weighted selection process. Officials claim the changes will prioritize higher-paid, higher-skilled applicants. The updates follow months of shifting guidance on fees and restrictions tied to the visa program, which is widely used by technology companies to hire foreign talent.

Looks like if Judge Casey Pitts grants the motion for Hold separate order on Monday, the sales day 1 program (go live scheduled for Jan 2) specifically the effort to combine both companies sales data into one tool would be immediately frozen. The companies would be legally prohibited from scrambling of the eggs. Merry Christmas.

This is yet another scary action against longtime customers.

https://cloudinfra.blog/broadcom-vs-allstate-how-vmware-customers-became-legal-targets-and-why-delaying-an-exit-is-risky/

Wells Fargo & Co was sued by a former manager who says he was fired for pushing the bank to create a more diverse workforce and objecting to its practice of interviewing minority applicants for jobs that were already filled.

Joseph Bruno claims in the lawsuit filed Thursday he tried for years — and often failed — to persuade the bank’s executives to live up to the company’s stated diversity and inclusion goals.

He was the first person to publicly claim in 2022 that Wells Fargo had been conducting sham interviews of minority candidates. The bank did this, he said, so executives could say they were making concrete efforts to diversify its workforce.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-12-19/wells-fargo-sued-by-ex-manager-who-said-bank-faked-diversity?embedded-checkout=true

https://ogletree.com/insights-resources/blog-posts/paying-remote-workers-less-may-heighten-legal-risks

"Paying remote workers less than in-person workers for performing the same work could increase the risk of discrimination claims."

"Telework policies that tie lower pay to remote work may disproportionately affect women, caregivers, and employees with disabilities, potentially raising the risk of equal pay and disparate impact lawsuits."

"Courts and regulators increasingly expect individualized assessments of job functions, consistent application of policies, and rigorous documentation of legitimate business reasons for paying certain workers less than others in similar jobs. Without data-driven and legally sound analysis, employers could unintentionally adopt telework policies that are difficult to defend in court."

"Reducing pay for exempt employees who work remotely could jeopardize their exempt status in certain situations."

The Trump administration appealed a judge’s ruling that it illegally froze more than $2 billion in research funding to punish Harvard University for refusing to comply with a host of demands from the federal government.

US lawyers filed a notice of appeal on Thursday, more than three months after US District Judge Allison Burroughs ruled that the Trump administration had violated Harvard’s free-speech and due-process rights.

https://www.ndtvprofit.com/world/us-appeals-harvard-court-victory-on-2-billion-funding-freeze

Here is a breakdown of the key issues you've described and whether they are likely to have legal merit:
⚖️ Legal Merit of the Complaints:
It is highly unlikely that either of the actions described—the performance rating changes or the salary range consolidation—is illegal on its own, especially in the context of general U.S. employment law (which applies unless a specific country or state is mentioned).

1. The Low Performance Ratings ("Forced Distribution")
   • The Law: In the U.S., the vast majority of employment is at-will. This means an employer can generally modify an employee's job duties, compensation, or even terminate them for any reason that is not illegal (i.e., not discriminatory).
   • Performance Reviews: Companies are legally allowed to change how they evaluate performance, introduce "forced distribution" (where a certain percentage must receive low ratings), and enforce stricter standards, even if it leads to ratings that employees feel are unfair or unexpected.
   • The Only Legal Challenge (Discrimination): A performance rating only becomes a potential legal issue if it can be proven that the rating was given based on illegal discrimination (e.g., race, gender, age, religion, disability, etc.) or in retaliation for engaging in a protected activity (like whistleblowing or reporting harassment).
   • The fact that many people are getting low ratings for the first time suggests a change in company policy, not necessarily individual illegal discrimination. For a lawsuit to succeed, a lawyer would need to show a pattern of discrimination against a protected class (e.g., "Only women received the 'Needs Improvement' rating," or "The rating was given right after I filed a formal complaint").
   • Conclusion: Being unhappy with a rating, or even feeling it was unfair, is generally not a legal issue.
2. Consolidating Salary Ranges for Remote Employees
   • The Law: Employers are free to set, change, and consolidate salary ranges and structures. They can decide to use a single, consistent salary range for all remote employees, regardless of the employee's specific location, even if some employees were previously in a higher, location-based range.
   • The Only Legal Challenge (Pay Equity): The consolidation itself is not illegal. However, the resulting salaries would still need to comply with Equal Pay laws. These laws require that employees performing substantially similar work receive equal pay, regardless of s-x (or, in some states, other protected characteristics), unless the difference is based on a factor other than s-x (like seniority, merit, or a geographical pay difference).
   • In your case, the company is moving toward more consistency, which generally reduces pay equity risk based on location differences, not increases it.
   • Conclusion: The consolidation is a standard business decision regarding compensation structure and is generally not illegal.
     📝 The Importance of Documentation
     While the actions are likely legal, the advice to document everything is still very sound advice.
   • For the Employee: Documentation helps establish a clear timeline and the company's reasoning. If an employee is eventually terminated, this documentation could be crucial evidence if they believe they have grounds for a lawsuit (i.e., if they can show the ratings were pretext for a discriminatory or retaliatory firing).
   • What to Document:
   • The New Rating: The exact rating, the written feedback, and any meetings where it was discussed.
   • Prior Performance: Previous high ratings, positive emails, and concrete examples of work that exceeded expectations before the change.
   • The Salary Change: The communication about the new salary band and how it was communicated.
   • The Thread: The general timeline and tenor of the complaints from peers.
     💡 Summary for the Thread
     Based on general U.S. employment law:
   • The actions are likely legal. Companies have wide latitude to change performance review systems and compensation structures.
   • A lawsuit would require proof of illegal discrimination or retaliation. General unfairness or bad management is not grounds for a legal case.
   • Documentation is still smart. It protects the employee by creating an evidence trail should they need to challenge the company on legitimate grounds (like discrimination) in the future.
     The best next steps for people on the thread would be to research the specific employment laws in their state and, if they suspect their individual rating or pay was based on an illegal factor like race, gender, or religion, then they should consult with an employment attorney.