Illinois – Court Addresses Employer’s Obligation to Reinstate Employee After FMLA Leave
March 5, 2008
Todd D. Steenson- Chicago
A recent decision from the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals demonstrates once again how difficult and dangerous the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) can be. The court reminded employers that an employee must be returned to a truly equivalent position after leave, and that you cannot avoid the reinstatement obligation by doling out the responsibilities of the employee on leave to other employees and then claiming that the position was eliminated. Breneisen v. Motorola, Inc. 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 809 (7th Cir.).
James Breneisen was employed at various Motorola facilities between 1994 and 2003. In January 2001, he was working as a process analyst in Motorola’s Rockford, Illinois facility, responsible for shipping and receiving merchandise and formulating process improvements for the assembly lines. He had received increased responsibilities and the HR director told him that he was performing the responsibilities of a salaried employee and that she would explore whether he might receive a salaried position.
On January 15, 2001, Breneisen left on FMLA leave. But when he returned from leave in April 2001, he was placed on the keypad line, a production line position that required him to lift heavy boxes and manually press buttons on phone keypads to ensure the phones properly functioned. His pay and benefits were not affected. Motorola told Breneisen that his former process analyst position had been phased out for business reasons, his former functions distributed to others, and that there were no available positions other than the keypad position. After further medical problems, James’ employment was terminated in 2003.
Breneisen sued, alleging that Motorola had interfered with his FMLA rights by failing to restore him to an equivalent position upon his return from FMLA leave. The Seventh Circuit agreed that Breneisen could present his claims to a jury. The court rejected Motorola’s claim that the keypad position was equivalent to his pre-leave job. “The test for equivalence is strict. Jobs are only ‘equivalent’ within the meaning of the FMLA if they entail ‘equivalent employment benefits, pay, and other terms and conditions of employment.’ For instance, the jobs ‘must involve the same or substantially similar duties and responsibilities.’” Breneisen’s post-leave job did not meet this standard. Even though he received the same pay and benefits in both positions, they differed in many respects. The keypad position involved manual tasks, rather than the administrative duties of Breneisen’s prior process analyst job, and other employees stated that the keypad position had less prestige and viewed it as a demotion.
The court also rejected Motorola’s argument that there was no obligation to reinstate Breneisen to the process analyst position because it had been eliminated. If an employee’s position is eliminated while he is on FMLA leave for reasons unrelated to the leave, he has no right to reinstatement. But here, it looked like Motorola had eliminated the position because of the leave. Supervisors stated that the functions remained; one said, “in our service business it’s hard to hold positions open when we’ve got to take care of customers every day. So we found a way of working through it.” The court concluded that “[t]hese explanations strongly suggest that Motorola had no business justification for eliminating [the process analyst] position apart from a need to ‘work through’ the fact that Breneisen had taken leave.” “Motorola appears to have simply replaced James or restructured his position to accommodate his absence. If that was the case, James would have been entitled to reinstatement.” But according to the FMLA regulations, “an employee is entitled to reinstatement even if the employee has been replaced or his or her position has been restructured to accommodate the employee’s absence,” the court said.
What This Means for You
The Breneisen case shows the care employers must exercise when returning an employee to work after an FMLA leave. The post-leave position must be truly equivalent in all respects, not just pay and benefits. Furthermore, employers cannot avoid the obligation to reinstate an employee after FMLA leave simply by doling out the responsibilities to other employees during the leave. Unless you can prove that the employee would have been terminated even if he or she had not taken leave, you must restore the employee to the same or equivalent position when the leave ends.
For more information, email Todd D. Steenson at todd.steenson@hklaw.com or call toll free, 1.888.688.8500.