Offering Practical Guidance to Employers
Recall our post concerning the employee on FMLA who went to Cancun to recover from surgery. The court upheld her termination for violating a rule that those receiving wage replacement benefits must stay in the immediate vicinity of their homes.
Now comes a nurse on FMLA with a back and leg injury, collecting disability benefits, who…
A parent otherwise eligible for FMLA leave can use that leave to care for a child 18 years of age or older, if that child (1) has a “disability” under the ADA; (2) is incapable of self-care due to that disability; (3) has a “serious health condition” under the FMLA; and (4) needs care due…
Reading Hospital assigns parking locations to employees based on seniority, department location and shift. Caught using a purloined parking pass, plaintiff was reassigned to a remote parking location, which required her to take a shuttle bus from her worksite to her car at the end of the workday, which delayed her departure, which made her…
First Oktoberfest, now Pulaski Days.
Recall our post about an employee on FMLA who was terminated after his employer learned about his Oktoberfest festival jaunt. The Sixth Circuit affirmed summary judgment for the employer on the plaintiff’s FMLA retaliation claim, holding that, based on the plaintiff’s actions at the festival, the employer had an “honest belief” that the employee…
What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, usually, but not in this case. What happened in Vegas was scrutinized because the plaintiff claimed that her absences for her trip there were protected by the FMLA because she was “caring for” her mother on her mom’s end-of-life trip. A charitable organization which grants wishes to persons with…
An employer had an ”honest suspicion” that an employee was not using FMLA for its intended purpose based in part on the report of a private investigator, according to the Seventh Circuit. The Court affirmed summary judgment for the employer. Scruggs v. Carrier Corporation. (7th Cir. August 3, 2012).
The employer had hired the…
When an employee works a “rotational” schedule—typically weeks “on” followed by weeks “off”—do the “off” weeks count when calculating FMLA leave? An Oklahoma federal court held that an employer did not violate the FMLA by counting scheduled weeks off as FMLA leave. Murphy v. John Christner Trucking (D. Ok. Aug. 15, 2012). In 2010, an Alaska…
While the FMLA does not require an employer to reduce its performance standards when an employee is actually on the job, the FMLA “can require that performance standards be adjusted to avoid penalizing an employee for being absent during FMLA-protected leave,” according to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Pagel v …
An employee’s taking a morning off to make an unannounced visit to his physician’s office to get a prescription refill and confirm that referral paperwork for an appointment that afternoon had been completed was not protected by the FMLA because the visit was not “treatment” for a serious health condition, the Seventh Circuit has held.
The Sixth Circuit has affirmed summary judgment for an employer who terminated an employee on FMLA leave based on its “honest belief” that the employee had “over-reported” his restrictions to avoid doing light duty work. Seeger v. Cincinnati Bell Telephone, (6th Cir. May 8, 2012).
Under the labor contract, an employee on otherwise unpaid…
