Labor & Employment Law

The Federal Court held, employees strange behavior can put employers on notice for required FMLA

By Michael Goldstein, Esq.

In October 2007, the Federal court held that in the context of the Family and Medical Leave Act; direct notice from the employee to the employer is not always necessary. In the context of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), either an employee’s inability to communicate his illness to his employer or clear abnormalities in the employee’s behavior may constitute constructive notice of a serious health condition. It is enough under the FMLA if the employer knows of the employee’s need for leave; the employee need not mention the statute or demand its benefits. Stevenson v. Hyre Elec. Co., 505 F.3d 720 (2007).

The facts of the case were that on February 9, 2004, an employee had an extreme emotional and physical response to a stray dog entering her workspace. She left work soon after and for the most part stayed home for the next several days. The few times she tried to return to work, she felt unable to function and demonstrated erratic and emotional behavior. Approximately one month later, she received a letter informing her that she had been terminated effective February 25. In this case, the court found that it was possible that the employee herself was unaware that she was suffering from a serious medical condition until she went to the emergency room on February 11. Yet the employee did not give the employer any explicit notice of her need for leave within one or two working days of February 11. It was not until February 17 that she left a copy of her Emergency Room discharge orders with an agent at the employer’s office. The court found that her behavior was so bizarre that it amounted to constructive notice of the need for leave.

Once notice is provided to the employer, and such notice may be in the form of an extreme behavior change, it becomes the employer’s obligation to request such additional information from the employee’s doctor as may be necessary to confirm the employee’s entitlement to FMLA leave. To read another employment lawyer’s take on this case click here

It would appear from this new case, that the requirements for FMLA requests and any subsequent termination may lead to increased claims for handicap discrimination, whereby the employee’s conduct puts the employer on notice of a reasonable accomidation request.

Full post as published by Massachusetts Employment Law Blog on December 26, 2007 (boomark / email).