This recent case reiterates an important lesson for managers: Don’t talk about legal issues over e-mail.
Over the course of five years, an employee had a number of medical problems and took time off under both FMLA and the company’s short-term disability plan.
The company’s policy allows employees to take disability leave with a guarantee their jobs will be held open for 90 days (which, of course, is roughly the amount of time employees can take under FMLA).
When one of the employee’s periods of leave lasted longer than 90 days, the company told her it had to fill her position with someone. When she was ready to work again, she was offered a job at a lower level.
Sounds like the company did everything right: It held the woman’s position for her until she ran out of FMLA leave.
But she sued anyway, claiming she was retaliated against for taking FMLA. It turned out her old job was still open when she came back (though the employee never asked about reinstatement).
In court, the employee’s lawyer dug an e-mail her manager sent to HR explaining he wanted to hire someone else. He said the employee had taken “extended leave of absences for the past four or five years. Therefore, this has become almost a part-time position.”
The company tried to have the case thrown out, but after reading that e-mail, the judge concluded the company could have given the employee her old job back but didn’t, in retaliation for her FMLA leaves.
Cite: Keim v. National Railroad Passenger Corporation
