the situation
Your HR Director is under a lot of stress—both based on some personal
issues and some issues between her and the CEO. According to the CEO,
during a heated conversation, she quits. She claims she just told the
CEO that she was thinking of quitting and that she was actually fired
when she subsequently tried to request FMLA leave based on psychological
distress. What sort of FMLA claims could you face?
the ruling
In a case earlier this year, a jury found
an employer liable for interference and retaliation in violation of the
FMLA and a court awarded liquidated damages under similar circumstances.
LaMonaca v. Tread Corp., Case No. 7:14cv00249 (W.D. Va. 2016).
Basically, if the jury found that the employee had been fired (and not
resigned as the company claimed), the court couldn’t find that the
company acted in good faith and thus liquidated damages should be
awarded.
Valarie LaMonaca had been serving as Tread
Corporation’s HR Director for about a year when she began experiencing
s
ome stress due to personal issues, namely, her husband’s loss of a job
while recuperating from open heart surgery. LaMonaca was under some
stress at work as her relationship with Tread’s CEO had become strained,
partly due to a lawsuit Tread had filed against two previous members of
the executive team. According to the CEO, during a meeting about this
lawsuit, LaMonaca resigned. However, LaMonaca claimed she only told him
she was thinking about resigning. She says the CEO told her to think
about this decision and that if she wanted to resign it needed to be in
writing.
Later that Friday night, the CEO sent
LaMonaca a couple of text messages asking if she planned to submit a
written resignation. She didn’t respond. However, on Saturday, she did
schedule an appointment with her doctor and then sent an email to
another HR representative saying that she was suffering from
psychological distress due to stress. She also asked the HR
representative to send her FMLA forms so she could take them with her to
see her doctor.
On Sunday, the CEO sent her a text—saying
that based on her lack of response to his other texts, he was assuming
that the resignation she had given on Friday was effective immediately.
LaMonaca responded about an hour later, saying she didn’t plan to resign
and then sent an email a short time later stating that she was not
resigning and requesting a medical leave of absence based on the adverse
effects of prolonged exposure to stress. Twenty minutes after that
email, the CEO responded and told her to stay off of Tread property
until further notice.
On Monday, LaMonaca’s doctor ended up
diagnosing her with an adjustment disorder with anxious features. She
was advised to take a 30 day medical leave of absence. That same day,
the CEO sent LaMonaca an email stating that her employment had ended the
previous Friday. LaMonaca sent him a copy of the doctor’s note and
asked him to reconsider, but he refused.
LaMonaca filed a lawsuit—claiming that
Tread interfered with her rights under the FMLA and that Tread
terminated her in retaliation for exercising her FMLA rights. A jury
ended up agreeing with LaMonaca. The court upheld the jury verdict. The
court rejected Tread’s arguments that the fact that LaMonaca had not
received any medical treatment at the time she requested FMLA leave was
fatal to her claim. The court also found that the fact that her doctor’s
note was not provided until after she was terminated did not matter.
Additionally, the court found that the jury
had rejected Tread’s argument that the CEO genuinely believed that
LaMonaca had resigned before she requested FMLA leave. In light of this
finding on the jury’s part, the court explained, there was no way to
find that Tread had acted in good faith and so LaMonaca was entitled to
liquidated damages.
the point
Employers are often faced with situations
where employees and management recount very different versions of their
communications. This is an example of the potential outcome of this type
of disagreement. One way to address this potential danger is to have
witnesses present during discussions that could involve sensitive
issues. Of course, it isn’t always possible to anticipate when such
conversations will arise. Regardless, employers should avoid jumping the
gun where an employee talks about resigning, but shortly after asks for
medical leave.
Originally posted to , by Elaine Hogan on March 16, 2016