News in Brief July 26 – RadioShack, CVS and More

RadioShack Employees Seek Back Vacation Wages

As a part of a putative class action, a group of RadioShack employees are claiming that the company and its successor General Wireless are refusing to pay for their accumulated, unused vacation time. According to the suit, General Wireless said that it would honor its employees’ vacation time but, once it gained control of RadioShack’s assets, refused to give workers time or money for their accrued days. If the lawsuit reaches a settlement, more than 1,000 RadioShack employees could be able to claim money for their lost vacation pay.

CVS’ Vitamin E Reportedly Damages Heart Health

The lead plaintiff in a proposed class action against CVS told an appellate court that the case shouldn’t have been dismissed because its Vitamin E supplements are actually harmful to heart health – instead of beneficial like the label claims. The lawsuit says that CVS lied about how the drug actually works, leading health-savvy customers to think they were promoting healthier hearts without any evidence to support the claims. The initial case was dismissed because the judge thought it was being argued that CVS claimed its product fought disease – something that would be preempted by federal law – when, in fact, the plaintiff was simply alleging that the label’s claims about supporting heart health were misleading.

Hanford Nuclear Site Workers Sue Government Over Pensions

Employees at the Hanford Site for nuclear materials filed a proposed class action against the U.S. Department of Energy claiming that their pensions took a hit when their work contract changed ownership. According to the complaint, the government refused to pay the Hanford workers proper benefits because there would be healthy competition between the companies overseeing the site after the work was contracted out. But, when Lockheed Martin Services took over in 1996, work at Hanford wasn’t opened up for competition and the workers’ Energy Department controlled pension plan lost value. The suit is looking to compensate the more than 500 estimated workers who were transferred to Lockheed Martin in 1996.

FTC Looks to Preserve Gray Hair Supplement False Advertising Lawsuit

The Federal Trade Commission has requested that a Wyoming federal judge continue a lawsuit against Coorga Nutraceuticals Corp. over its Grey Defence supplement. According to the FTC, the company’s gray hair reversal supplement didn’t actually do anything to reverse graying. The FTC also said that the scientific articles provided by the Coorga should be disregarded because the company’s executive vice president and creator of marketing materials isn’t an expert and lacks a scientific background.