US: Puzder’s company wins discrimination trial delay

Labor secretary nominee Andrew Puzder, the controversial business leader expected to undergo a US Senate confirmation hearing next week, will be spared an emotionally weighted and concurrent discrimination trial against the restaurant group he heads.

A state court in Orange County, California, has granted CKE Restaurants a delay from Feb. 27 – when the full Senate might still be considering Puzder’s nomination – to early June for an age and disability discrimination lawsuit after the company cited “negative publicity” generated by his nomination.

Puzder, CKE Restaurants’ chief executive, has been under fire by Democrats and labor groups for opposing increases in the minimum wage and aiming to curb worker protections. But his expected confirmation by a Republican majority in the Senate has not been knocked off track.

By the June 5 trial, he may be labor secretary and well along the way to divesting himself from the company. Puzder agreed to divest his stakes in CKE, worth anywhere between $11 million and $55 million, if confirmed, according to an ethics submission reviewed by Reuters.

Full Content: Law 360

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