FMLA Archives | Employment Law | Kollman & Saucier, P.A.

City Not Required to Accommodate Employee’s Financial Stresses Under the ADA

Kollman & Saucier

05/07/2014

Disability & Leave, FMLA, Pregnancy Discrimination

An employee’s potential increased day-care costs are not a pregnancy-related condition requiring accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act, according to a federal district judge in Minnesota. As a result, a city police department was not required to accommodate a request by a pregnant employee for a swapped time-shift. McCarty v. City of Eagan, No. 0:12-cv-02512 (D. Minn. Apr. 28, 2014). Brea McCarty worked her way up to the...

Darrell VanDeusen

03/25/2014

FMLA

Employers often cringe when they think about taking a case to a jury. Even if the facts are good for the company, juries are notoriously unpredictable and sometimes follow sympathies rather than legal reasoning. That, of course, is one reason why appellate review exists. A recent decision from the Eleventh Circuit provides a case study of the issue in the context of a company executive’s claim of a Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) violation...

Darrell VanDeusen

01/27/2014

FMLA

Employers who decide to fire an employee for a work rule violation usually feel pretty secure in the decision when the employee has admitted to the infraction. But it is important to remember that, in discrimination or retaliation cases, the real question is “how has the employer treated other employees in similar circumstances?” The need to focus on this “similarly situated” factor, as well as the possible “bad facts” in a case, was...

Garrett Wozniak

11/18/2013

Age Discrimination, Disability & Leave, FMLA

In Owens v. Calhoun County School District, No. 12-60897 (Oct. 8, 2013), the Fifth Circuit upheld a district court’s granting of summary judgment to an employer on a former employee’s Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) claim. Karen Darlene Mann Owens taught at Bruce Upper Elementary School in Mississippi for seventeen years until she was fired in February 2010. Owens suffered from neck and back pain, conditions which worsened over the...

Darrell VanDeusen

10/14/2013

FMLA

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) grants eligible employees the right to take job protected leave. An employer that denies an employee such rights may be faced with an FMLA “interference” claim. The FMLA also precludes employers from discriminating or retaliating against employees for exercising those rights, and employers must defend against such “retaliation” claims as well. In the typical retaliation case, an employee subject to...

Darrell VanDeusen

08/20/2013

FMLA, Wage & Hour

In a real head scratcher, the Sixth Circuit has held 2-1 that volunteer firefighters are “employees” who are counted for, and therefore get protection under, the Family and Medical Leave Act. Mendel v. City of Gibraltar, 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 16922 (August 15, 2013). The majority made this decision based on the “substantial wages” paid for the services performed. The City of Gibraltar, Michigan has approximately 25 volunteer firefighters...

Randi Klein Hyatt

07/12/2013

FMLA

In Hansen v. Fincantieri Marine Group, LLC, (E.D. Wis. June 14, 2013), the employee suffered from depression and had episodic flare-ups that prevented him from working. He was approved for intermittent FMLA leave based on his certification from his health care provider which advised the employee may experience “about four episodes every six months” and which would incapacitate him “two to five days per episode.” Within the first two...

Garrett Wozniak

04/11/2013

Disability & Leave, Employment Discrimination, FMLA, Reasonable Accommodations/Undue Burden, Retaliation, State Law

In Anderson v. Discovery Communications, 8:08-cv-02424, 2013 WL 1364345 (4th Cir. Apr. 5, 2013), the Fourth Circuit affirmed a decision from the United States District Court for the District of Maryland granting summary judgment to Discovery and a cadre of individual defendants on claims under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Montgomery County Human Rights Act (MCHRA), and Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Though unremarkable in and of...

Randi Klein Hyatt

02/26/2013

FMLA

A federal court in Michigan recently dismissed the FMLA claims of an employee fired for misuse of FMLA leave and dishonesty after posting photographs of her vacation on Facebook while on medical leave. Lineberry v. Richards, No. 2: 11-13752 (E.D. Mich. Feb. 5, 2013). Carol Lineberry worked as a registered nurse for Detroit Medical Center (DMC). In January 2011, Lineberry complained of excruciating pain in her back and legs after moving...

Randi Klein Hyatt

02/21/2013

FMLA

Most employers and human resource professionals know that the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) permits certain employees of covered employers to take unpaid leave for specified family and medical reasons. The FMLA, through its implementing regulations, requires that an employee claiming FMLA provide his or her employer within fifteen days (or longer if the employer so allows) a certificate of health care provider confirming the employee’s...

< 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 >

Email Updates

City Not Required to Accommodate Employee’s Financial Stresses Under the ADA

FMLA Jury Verdict Overturned by Appellate Court

FMLA Case Goes to Jury, Says Tenth Circuit

Exhaustion of FMLA Leave with No Return Date Dooms Plaintiff’s Claims

First Circuit Rules on FMLA Retaliation Rights for Employees Who Are Not FMLA-Eligible

Volunteer Firefighters are “Employees” for FMLA Coverage

Failure To Comply With The FMLA’s Recertification Procedures Ruins Employer’s Summary Judgment Chances

Employer’s Consistent Explanation for Discharging Employee Defeats Discrimination Claims

No FMLA Claim For Employee Who Posted Vacation Photos On Facebook During Leave

Employee Not Entitled To FMLA After Failing To Produce Health Care Provider Certification

Email Updates

Email Updates

Category: FMLA

Email Updates