Employers: Probably How Not to Win a FMLA Case

Darrell VanDeusen
Darrell VanDeusen
04/05/2023
It’s that time of year when I update my treatise on FMLA/Wage & Hour Law (available as a part of the Labor and Employment Law multi-volume series published by Lexis/ Nexis).  But enough gratuitous self-promotion.  The FMLA turns 30 years old this year.  It remains hard to argue with the Congressional intent of a desire to “balance workplace and family.”   And, as FMLA jurisprudence has matured over the years, there are now not many...
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Delaware Enacts Family and Medical Paid Leave Law

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
05/11/2022
Yesterday, Delaware became the latest state to pass a law requiring private employers to participate in an insurance program that will provide paid family and medical leave to workers who meet certain eligibility requirements.  The Healthy Delaware Families Act (Act) is similar to Maryland’s recently-passed Time to Care Act, as well as laws in 10 other jurisdictions that aim to ensure employees have access to paid time off for family and medical...
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Second and Third Opinions In FMLA Cases

Clifford Geiger
Clifford Geiger
04/22/2022
The United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania recently addressed the proper role of employer-sought second opinions, as well as third opinions, in FMLA cases. Wert v. The Pennsylvania State University (April 15, 2022). Brenda Wert was an accountant at Penn State University. She had a medical certification allowing her to take one day of FMLA leave per week for migraines. When she started taking more time, Penn State asked...
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Maryland General Assembly Passes Paid FMLA Law

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
04/04/2022
On March 31, the Maryland Senate approved the  “Time to Care Act,” which will provide paid family leave to employees of businesses with 15 or more employees. The bill now goes to Governor Hogan, where it may be vetoed. However, the General Assembly passed the law with enough time to override a veto, should the Governor choose to do so. The Time to Care Act offers employees 12 weeks of partially paid family leave each year to care for themselves...
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Something Smells Funny in this FMLA Case

Darrell VanDeusen
Darrell VanDeusen
02/18/2022
The internet is for … looking stuff up.  Sometimes I become interested in the possible back story of a case that, on it’s face, seems boring.  That’s what happened today. A recent FMLA case (yes, it’s time to begin my book update) seemed pedestrian enough:  a federal court denied the employer’s motion to dismiss the FMLA claims of an employee who alleges he was denied benefits and disciplined in violation of the Act.  Diorio v. City of...
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Employee’s Pandemic-Related FMLA Claims Survive Dismissal

Garrett Wozniak
Garrett Wozniak
11/11/2021
At the risk of stating the obvious, employees and employers alike have faced challenges throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.  Many have approached these challenges with an open-mind, flexibility, compassion.  A recent decision from a federal court in Virginia provides a useful reminder of these principles in the context of a worker’s claim that his former employer interfered with his rights under the Family and Medical Leave Act...
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Alleged Harassment Lets FMLA Claim Proceed

Darrell VanDeusen
Darrell VanDeusen
10/18/2021
The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provides that use of FMLA leave cannot be used as a “negative factor” in employment actions designed to discourage an employee from taking leave.  See 29 C.F.R. § 825.220 (b) and (c). There are two types of FMLA claims: “interference” and “discrimination/retaliation” claims.  Courts have rejected the notion that the FMLA – unlike Title VII or the ADEA – provides for a “hostile work...
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The COVID Cases are Coming, the COVID Cases are Coming!

Darrell VanDeusen
Darrell VanDeusen
08/23/2021
And so it has begun.  Unless you just arrived from another planet, you know that we’ve been in COVID world for about 18 months.  The lawsuits involving employee behavior, and employer reactions to that behavior, during the pandemic are being filed and decided in state and federal courts.  Here’s one where a physician assistant’s (PA) unprofessional behavior in the early months of COVID led to his termination.  Unwilling or unable to accept...
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Is a Broken Little Toe a FMLA Serious Health Condition? Ask the Jury.

Darrell VanDeusen
Darrell VanDeusen
05/07/2021
An employer that fired a worker who broke his little toe and then did not come to work because, he claimed, he couldn’t get his work boots on will have to let a jury decide whether he had a serious health condition under the FMLA and whether, as a result, his termination was illegal interference with his FMLA rights.  Scholl v. Miami Valley Polishing, LLC, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 82946 (S.D. Ohio 2021). The company, MVP, supplies polished aluminum...
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It’s Called the Bermuda Triangle of Leave for a Reason: It’s Got Three Parts.

Darrell VanDeusen
Darrell VanDeusen
05/04/2021
I am in the process of updating my FMLA/Wage & Hour treatise published by LEXIS/NEXIS (gratuitous self-promotion).  All this means is that I have been reading lots of FMLA cases; my blogs this week will be a teaser for what’s new in the book.  As you likely know, the challenges in applying the FMLA, ADA and workers’ compensation law when an employee needs time off from work are, at times, mind-boggling.  The interplay of these statutes in...
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