By: Sean F. Darke, Esq.
Employers need to be extra careful when reviewing whether or not an employee is eligible under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) because not being careful could cost the company thousands of dollars. More and more federal courts are applying the doctrine of equitable estoppel to FMLA claims. The fact scenarios are simple: an employer mistakenly provides protection to the employee under the Act, even though the employee or the employer is not eligible to receive the benefits. For example, the employer mistakenly believes that the employee worked the 1,250 hours in the previous 12 months to be eligible, or the employer believes it has 50 employees within 75 miles from the employees' workplace. The employer then realizes its mistake and makes a decision that has an adverse impact on the employee. Unfortunately, that initial mistake could cost the employer thousands of dollars in litigation costs.
The above facts, combined with the federal courts' decisions to apply an equitable estoppel doctrine, make it paramount that employers exercise extreme care when evaluating whether or not an employee is eligible for FMLA leave; although, it is understandable that employers rush to provide the notice requirement under the Act because of the short time frame. But employers need to focus on the employee's eligibility to avoid incorrectly providing an employee FMLA rights. In order to accomplish this, employers need to review their handbooks and other written communications regarding FMLA to make sure that they are not mistakenly extending family medical leave to employees who are not eligible. Next, the employer needs to properly train its staff on how to implement family medical leave requests. These simple tasks will place an employer in a better position to avoid mistakenly providing an employee with FMLA rights and potentially saving the client thousands of dollars in litigation costs.
Questions? Please contact WS Senior Attorney Sean F. Darke at (312) 629-9300, or sedarke@wesselssherman.com.
