Court makes one-year threshold easier for employees to meet
When calculating employee weeks for FMLA eligibility, make sure you include all accrued vacation time, regardless of whether or not the employee actually took a vacation. If you don’t, you could commit an FMLA violation.
In a recent case an employee worked for a company for 51 weeks, then left work for treatment of a serious medical condition. He applied for and was denied FMLA leave because he failed to meet the 52-week service requirement. But he was put on medical leave. Shortly after the employee returned to work, the company reorganized and let him go.
He sued, claiming that his company’s refusal to give him FMLA leave, failure to reinstate him, and his unfair termination resulted in serious FMLA violation.
The company’s argument: He only worked here for 51 weeks!
But that’s where they were wrong.
It was an FMLA violation: Timing of vacation ‘irrelevant’
A district court in Maine said that the employee could use accrued vacation time to satisfy the FMLA’s 12-month service requirement. The court noted FMLA regulations stating that if any employee is maintained on the payroll for any part of a week, including any paid or unpaid leave (e.g. sick leave, vacation days) the week counts as a week of employment.
The court also noted that FMLA regulations say that any vacation taken counts toward the 12-month requirement.
Cite: Ruder v Maine General Medical Center, U.S. District Court, District of Maine, No. 01-CV-220-B-S., 5/10/02
