Paid Family and Sick Leave: How it Works in the Era of Coronavirus

Recent amendments to the Family and Medical Leave Act, coupled with Governor Northam’s Executive Order mandating state-wide school closure, present challenges to normal small business office operations.

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What Counts as Bad Faith Under the FMLA?

  the situation An employee requests to use a month of FMLA leave based upon an injury and the request is approved. The employee tells HR that she has an appointment with her doctor on the day before she expects to return (which happens to be a Friday).  During that doctor’s appointment, the employee is […]

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FMLA Retaliation Claim Even Where Actual Decisionmaker Didn’t Know About Use of Leave?

the situation An employee requests and is approved for FMLA leave based on a mental health condition.  While she is out, she accumulates a backlog of work. According to her supervisor, after she returns, she continues to have performance problems, including not meeting certain metrics and otherwise just not meeting his standards.  Based on a […]

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Despite Serious Documented Performance Issues, Reference to Medical Leave May Mean FMLA Retaliation Claim

the situation An employee begins working as a sales consultant and from the beginning, has serious performance issues. She is given a number of warnings and even placed on an improvement plan. After she receives a final warning threatening termination if her performance does not improve, she submits a request for FMLA leave for some […]

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Could Drinking a Beer Constitute a Legitimate Use of FMLA Leave?

the situation You have an employee who has requested intermittent FMLA leave because of some mental health conditions, including depression and anxiety. One morning, the employee tells his supervisor that he needs to use some of this leave because he is experiencing severe stress and anxiety. Another employee reports to you that as the employee […]

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Did She Quit or was She Fired? In FMLA Context, Could Mean Liquidated Damages

the situation Your HR Director is under a lot of stress—both based on some personal issues and some issues between her and the CEO. According to the CEO, during a heated conversation, she quits. She claims she just told the CEO that she was thinking of quitting and that she was actually fired when she […]

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Get your story straight—employer’s change in explanation can be evidence of pretext

Yet again, an employer is burned by asserting inconsistent reasons for the termination of an employee.  In a recent case, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals found that an employee had presented sufficient evidence of an unlawful termination based on his use of FMLA leave where the employer offered differing stories as to the reason […]

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No FMLA Retaliation Where Employer Can Show Employee Terminated for Improperly Accessing Supervisor’s Email

The decision of the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia in the case of Downs v. Winchester Medical Center, et al., No. 5:13cv00083 regarding what constitutes a claim for interference in violation of the FMLA was the topic of a posting from a few months ago. The district court had found […]

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New Guidance from EEOC on Pregnancy Discrimination

Earlier this week, the EEOC issued a Notice titled Enforcement Guidance: Pregnancy Discrimination and Related Issues. The EEOC provides an overview of statutory protections, discussing the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (“PDA”), the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), and other requirements affecting pregnant workers, including the Family Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”), Executive Order 13152 Prohibiting Discrimination Based […]

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