Texas Employment Law Update : Texas Employment Lawyer & Attorney : Russell D. Cawyer : Kelly Hart & Hallman Law Firm : Dallas TX Labor Updates

While the FMLA normally requires an eligible employee be reinstated to an equivalent position at the end of his FMLA leave, the employee has no greater right to reinstatement than if the employee had been continually employed.  Thus, there are several situations where an employee is not entitled to reinstatement.

First, where an employer conducts a layoff or reduction in force while the employee is on FMLA and would have been laid off had the employee not been on leave, the employer's obligation to reinstatement and continuation of benefits ends on the date of termination.

Second, employees hired for specific project or for a specified term, have no right to reinstatement after the termination of the project or specified term.

Third, employees who have obtained leave fraudulently have no right to reinstatement.

Fourth, employees who are unable to perform the essential functions of the position of employment at the end of leave are not entitled to reinstatement.  To avoid an ADA claim, the employee must only be denied employment if he or she cannot perform the essential functions of the position with or without reasonable accommodation.

Finally, employer's may deny reinstatement to salaried, eligible key employees when the denial of reinstatement (not leave itself) is necessary to prevent substantial and grievous economic injury to the operations of the employer.  Key employees are those salaried employees who are among the highest paid 10 percent of all employees employed by the employer within 75 miles of the employee's worksite.  Substantial and grievous economic injury sufficient to warrant denial of reinstatement to a key employee includes those situations where reinstatement would jeopardize the viability of the company itself.  Minor inconveniences and costs the employer would otherwise experience in the normal course of business, however, would not qualify.  Keep in mind that the employer must provide "key employees" with certain disclosures at the time the employee gives notice of the need for leave to be able to deny reinstatement.

While an employee's use of FMLA leave will normally entitled the employee to reinstatement to an equivalent position, keep these exceptions to the general rule in mind when managing leave programs.

Follow me on Twitter @RussellCawyer.

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The U.S. Supreme Court will decide next term whether it is law enforcement's warrantless placement of GPS devices on a suspect's vehicle amounts to an unlawful search or seizure in violation of the Fourth Amendment.  The Fifth Circuit has already authorized law enforcement's use of this warrantless tactic.  Similarly, a New Jersey court has blessed a spouse's use of GPS tracking technology to gather evidence of her partner's infidelity in preparations for a divorce proceeding. 

One of the most frustrating human resources issues to manage is proving the case against an employee who is suspected of abusing intermittent FMLA. I'm not referring to the intermittent use of FMLA that is scheduled or reasonably anticipated.  I'm talking about the unscheduled, unanticipated use of intermittent FMLA where the employee calls in shortly before the start of his scheduled shift (normally right before or after a weekend) to report an absence that is due to a serious health condition.  This can occur frequently with certain respiratory conditions or migraine headaches.  How can an employer confirm that the employee is really absent on these occasions for the serious health condition and not because the employee stayed up too late the night before?

The recent cases highlighting law enforcement's use of GPS tracking technology (without a warrant) to track persons of interest made me start wondering about the legality of an employer's use surrepticious use of GPS tracking technology on an employee who is suspected of intermittent FMLA abuse.  A search of the reported cases did not uncover any cases where an employer use GPS technology to prove an employee fraudulent use of FMLA leave.  However, there are several reported cases where employers have used private investigators to follow employees to prove a case of FMLA abuse.   Is the placement of tracking technology much different than that so long as the potential tracking is disclosed to the employee in either handbooks or other notices?  Would it make a difference if the GPS device is first placed on the employee's vehicle when it is on public streets or even the employer's parking lot?  Would an employer have more latitude to track the employee if the employee is using an company-owned vehicle?  Could an employer subpoena the GPS data file, in the defense of an FMLA case, from the employee's Onstar system installed in the employee's car?  All of these questions are interesting and I confess I don't readily know how a court would rule on these issues.

The legality of this conduct likely depends on the state where the tracking occurs (different states have different levels of privacy protection and some states --not Texas --have private causes of action for constitutional violations).  The circumstances under which the GPS tracker was placed (i.e., was the employer able to place the device on a vehicle when it was on public or employer-owned property or on the employee's property) and ownership of the vehicle (i.e,. company or employee owned) are also likely key questions.  Employer disclosure of the practice, in either handbooks, policies or elsewhere, could also be important and perhaps determinative.  Certainly, this practice is fraught with interesting potential legal issues.  

If you have had any experiences where an employer used Onstar or GPS tracking technology to prove an employee's abuse of FMLA leave, I'd like to hear about it in the comments.

Follow me on Twitter @RussellCawyer.

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In its first FMLA opinion, the Texas Supreme Court held that agencies of the State of Texas cannot be sued for FMLA violations arising out of an employee's FMLA leave taken for his own serious health condition.   In University of Texas at El Paso v. Herrera, the Supreme Court of Texas held that, unlike the family care provisions of the FMLA, Congress did not abrogate Texas' sovereign immunity for violations of the FMLA self-care provision and therefore the State of Texas cannot be sued for such violations.

The underlying facts are as follows.  Alfredo Herrera was an HVAC technician for the University of Texas at El Paso.  Herrera sustained a work-related injury to his elbow requiring a nine month leave of absence.  One month after he returned to work, his employment was terminated.  He sued alleging that he was terminated for taking personal medical leave under the self-care provision of the FMLA and exercising his First Amendment rights by complaining about unsafe work conditions.  UTEP challenged the court's jurisdiction over the claim asserting that it was barred by sovereign immunity.  The trial court and court of appeals found that jurisdiction existed. 

Acknowledging that the U.S. Supreme Court held that Congress effectively abrogated state sovereign immunity for the FMLA family-care provisions, the Texas Supreme Court found that there was no evidence in the FMLA legislative history or Congressional findings that women took more personal medical leave (or were thought to do so) than men.  Because, according to the Court, the self-care provisions of the FMLA were not targeted at an identified pattern of gender discrimination on the part of the States, Congress overreached when it attempted to apply the self-care leave provisions to the states. 

While the opinion analyzes complex issues of state sovereignty and Congressional findings, the simple take away from Herrera is that the State of Texas cannot be sued for FMLA violations arising out of an employee's need for leave for self care.   

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The U.S. Department of Labor has "clarified" the reach of the FMLA by offering an interpretation of the meaning of "son or daughter" under the FMLA.  Under the FMLA regulations, a "son or daughter" is defined as:

a biological, adopted, or foster child, a stephchild, a legal ward, or a child of a person standing in loco parentis, who is either under age 18, or age 18 or older and 'incapable of self care because of a mental or physical disability' at the time that FMLA leave is to commence.

The new Administrator's interpretation (and first issued under the FMLA) provides some examples where the the Department would find a parental relationship despite the absence of of a biological or legal relationship such as:

• where an employee provides day-to-day care for his or her unmarried partner’s child (with whom there is no legal or biological relationship) but does not financially support the child;
• where an employee who will share equally in the raising of a child with the child’s biological parent would be entitled to leave for the child’s birth ;
• where an employee who will share equally in the raising of an adopted child with a same sex partner, but who does not have a legal relationship with the child, would be entitled to leave to bond with the child following placement, or to care for the child if the child had a serious health condition, because the employee stands in loco parentis to the child.

You can access a complete copy of the Administrator's interpretation here.

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