A Florida restaurant company was ordered to pay $60,065 in back pay and damages for an employee who was denied medical leave after a hospital stay and then fired, the U.S. Department of Labor said in a news release.
The employee worked at Wicked Cantina in Bradenton Beach, which is operated by The Wicked Taco Inc. The company has a second location in Sarasota.
According to the Department of Labor, the Wicked Cantina employee was released from a brief hospital stay on March 1, 2020 with doctor’s orders to take at least three days off of work.
The employee presented the doctor’s orders to a general manager but was told to work regardless, the Department of Labor said.
That resulted in a violation of the federal Family and Medical Leave Act.
“The FMLA entitles eligible employees of covered employers to take unpaid, job-protected leave for specified family and medical reasons,” the Department of Labor’s website says.
It covers several medical situations, including births, family illness and the presence of a serious health condition “that makes the employee unable to perform the essential functions of his or her job.”
In the case of Wicked Cantina, Department of Labor investigators found that “the employer never brought up that the worker could use FMLA-protected leave and did not provide notification of the employee’s FMLA rights or provide the required forms or notifications.”
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