In today’s news and commentary, the Treasury releases a draft list of occupations eligible for the “No Tax on Tips” tax break, a Texas Court rejects the NLRB’s effort to transfer a case to California, and the 9^th Circuit rules against firefighters suing their employer for refusing them religious exemptions from the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

The Treasury has released a draft list of occupations eligible for a tax break on tipped income, Bloomberg reports. The list includes a wide range of job categories that go beyond food service and hospitality workers: home maintenance workers, tutors, DJs, podcasters, and social media influencers could also benefit from the exemption. Forthcoming regulations published in the Federal Register are expected to include a substantially similar list, per the article.

Bloomberg reports that a federal judge in the Eastern District of Texas ruled against the NLRB as the agency attempted to transfer a case involving a California-based marine construction company to California. The ruling means the company, which is seeking an injunction to block ULP proceedings based on a claim that the NLRB’s structure is unconstitutional, can keep its case in Texas and take advantage of favorable 5^th Circuit precedent. The 5^th Circuit earlier this month endorsed similar preliminary injunctions sought by employers bringing constitutional challenges to Board proceedings. In a ruling last week, Judge Marcia Crone denied the NLRB’s request to transfer the case to the Northern District of California. Judge Crone agreed with the company that venue was proper in Texas because several events giving rise to the controversy occurred in the Eastern District of Texas, including organizing efforts, NLRB elections, and alleged retaliatory layoffs. The Court rejected the Board’s arguments that the employer’s claims “target the NLRB’s administrative process, not the merits of the ULP complaint,” distinguishing previous cases that were transferred where elections and alleged ULP’s occurred in other states.

Law360 reports that a 9^th Circuit panel affirmed a lower court ruling against a group of firefighters suing their employer for refusing them exemptions from a state COVID-19 vaccination mandate. The eight plaintiff firefighters sued a fire authority in Washington state, which required unvaccinated firefighters to use leave days and then apply for a one-year leave of absence, rather than allowing them to continue working. The unvaccinated firefighters were allowed to return to their jobs “after case rates subsided in May 2022,” per the article. The 9^th Circuit panel affirmed the lower court’s decision that allowing the firefighters to continue working would have imposed an undue hardship on the agency, citing factors including the health and safety of the public, risks to operations, and the potential loss of a lucrative contract with a state agency.