Wednesday afternoon, the Senate passed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, and President Trump signed it into law. The Act contains several provisions that will significantly impact employers with fewer than 500...more
In response to the coronavirus pandemic sweeping across the nation, the U.S. House of Representatives has passed the “Families First Coronavirus Response Act” (H.R. 6201). The bill is essentially a coronavirus financial aid...more
The coronavirus has already had a large (some would say devastating) effect on the global economy. How will it affect the day-to-day operations of an employer? Obviously, businesses want their employees to be safe and...more
Does a position that a company is holding for an employee out on FMLA leave an “open position” as contemplated by the Americans with Disabilities Act? In Maxwell v. Washington County, a Mississippi federal district court said...more
If an employee asks for time off to attend a meeting at his or her child’s school, is that covered by FMLA? Maybe not but it depends on the nature of the meeting. If the child is disabled and the school meeting is for the...more
An employee is on maternity leave and it does not look like she is going to be returning to work. Should you go ahead and terminate her employment during the maternity leave? Wait until it is over to terminate her employment?...more
We have said it before — the EEOC believes that leave is a reasonable accommodation and automatic termination when FMLA leave runs out violates the Americans with Disabilities Act. Even though at least one federal court has...more
My last post talked about Diamond v. Hospice of Florida Keys and what the Eleventh Circuit said about FMLA interference claims. As promised, this post will look at the Diamond decision’s take on the FMLA retaliation front....more
Managing intermittent FMLA is every employer’s nightmare (or is it just me?). Employees are entitled to take leave and operations folks find it difficult to keep the trains running on time with employees who don’t show up...more
A recent Eleventh Circuit case under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) approved Dollar General’s termination of an employee on leave. The timing of Dollar General’s decision...more
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is 25 years old this year. I was a newly minted lawyer when this law emerged in 1990 and as I have grown, so have the number of disability discrimination lawsuits. In celebration of...more
When Congress passed the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA), the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Family and Medial Leave Act (FMLA), it considered them as needed protections for clear-cut situations. For...more
Our first segments in our six-part series on pregnancy in the workplace focused on how the ADA, FMLA and PDA apply in the workplace to employees before, during, and after pregnancy and child birth. In this segment, we narrow...more
Question 1:
After recovery from child birth, if an employer provides an additional four weeks of leave time (paid or unpaid) for a female employee for parenting or bonding time with the child, must the employer treat...more
Examples of pregnancy-related impairments employers should consider and some common ADA accommodation requests
Does the EEOC expect preferential treatment for pregnant employees?
Originally published in Inside...more
The Obama Administration has made it clear that it wants to increase protections for pregnant employees. There is also significant discussion in the media about family-friendly workplaces. Against this backdrop, employers,...more
On Tuesday night, the Alabama Supreme Court ordered the state’s probate judges to stop issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Last month, a U.S. federal judge in Alabama ordered an Alabama official to issue marriage...more
The EEOC has filed a lawsuit (EEOC v. ValleyLife, Civil Action No. 2:15-cv-00340-GMS) under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) against ValleyLife, a disability support services company in Arizona, claiming that...more
If an employee claims her employer interfered with her rights under the Family and Medical Leave Act but she didn’t lose any salary or benefits, can she state an interference claim? In Evans v. Books-A-Million Inc., the...more
If an employee claims her employer interfered with her rights under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), but she didn’t lose any salary or benefits, can she win her case? In Evans v. Books-A-Million, the Eleventh Circuit...more
Send your Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) notices to employees via certified mail or risk having your summary judgment motion denied—that’s the message from U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Lupyan v. Corinthian...more
A problematic employee is teetering on the brink of termination and suddenly requests FMLA leave. Do you terminate him for cause or grant the FMLA leave and give him another chance to avoid the retaliation claim? What if he...more
All covered employers know that the FMLA entitles an eligible employee to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave during a 12-month period to care for a “son or daughter” with a serious health condition. While most...more