Offering Practical Guidance to Employers
On the day of her evening wedding, plaintiff called in and asked for a vacation day. When her request was denied, she said she would take an FMLA day instead. Since plaintiff had previously been approved for intermittent leave for migraine headaches, the employer approved her request.
A few weeks later, the plaintiff gave the…
For the 20th Anniversary of the FMLA, the National Partnership for Women and Families urges changes to provide more employees with more protected leave to “advance the FMLA’s promise of a family friendly America.”
The amendments proposed include adoption of a national family and medical leave insurance program, funded by employer and employee contributions, to…
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 …
