Courtroom: FMLA didn’t require employer to revive employee to place eradicated throughout depart

Diving letter:

• A financial services company was not required to give an employee returning from the Family and Medical Leave Act any “rights, benefits, or positions” that they would not have received had they not been on vacation, the US Court of Appeals ruled (Barger v First Data Corporation, No. 19-cv-3538 (2nd Circ., July 6, 2021)).
• One worker argued that his organization violated the FMLA when he failed to return him to his position, which had been eliminated by a company-wide reduction in forces.
• A district court disagreed, as did the appeals court. The plaintiff’s stance “that he had an absolute right to reinstatement after his doctor was dismissed, regardless of whether his position would have been terminated without his vacation, is unfounded,” the court said.

Dive Insight:

When an employee returns from FMLA leave, they are entitled to the same or an equivalent job. But the employee is not guaranteed the exact job he was in before the vacation, and FMLA factsheet specified by the U.S. Department of Labor. Instead, they are assigned a job “practically identical” to the one they previously had. Pay, benefits, and other factors such as class and location need to be coordinated.

However, the FMLA does not shield workers from events that would have hit them without vacation. A shift may have been eliminated. Overtime may have decreased. These changes apply to employees who were on leave at the time they came into force. And “if an employee is laid off during the FMLA leave,” according to the DOL, “the employer must be able to prove that the employee would not have been employed at the time of reinstatement.”

in the Barger, Circle 2 found that the workforce position was eliminated by a downsizing that focused on the top 10% of the organization’s 3,000 highest paid employees. The plaintiff earned more than $ 700,000 annually, and executives had raised concerns about his compensation the year before his FMLA vacation.

“A sensible jury could have found that First Data has proven its [reduction in force] Plans were the reason behind his decision to drop his position and that [the worker’s] FMLA vacation wasn’t a factor, “the court concluded.