Easy Termination Decision Complicated By FMLA

A dumb reply by a manager to an employee’s request can outweigh many abusive comments by that employee when a jury hears a Family Medical Leave Act suit, advises Jeff Nowak, co-chair of the labor and employment practice at the Franczek Radelet firm. He uses the example of a routinely abusive employee whose request for FMLA leave to care for his ailing son was turned down with a one line response: The company “paid for [Jim’s] insurance and thus expected him to be at work.” That was enough to get the case in front of a jury. Mind your communications, Nowak advises.