Did I scare you yesterday with my post about the part-time employee denied leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act who may have an FMLA retaliation claim after receiving full-time hours?
Well, your blogtender is here with a double shot of courage. (See what I did there?)
*** blogtender pours himself a double shot of something else ***
In Travers v. Cellco Partnership (opinion here), the defendant-employer put on its big boy/girl underpants — your blogtender doesn’t discriminate — and fired an employee on the day she returned from FMLA leave.
Because, guess what? The employee was warned and disciplined about performance issues before she took any FMLA leave and the timing of her discharge was simply because she was on leave when the employer learned of her final misconduct.
And the employer won because, news flash, it ain’t FMLA retaliation if the FMLA doesn’t motivate the firing.
Now, before you start caution to the wind, keep in mind when the employer prevailed in this case: summary judgment. How much did the employer have to spend in legal fees to get there? Whatever the outlay, that money would be recouped from the plaintiff.
So, fire slow and hire fast.
*** just checking ***