Investigation recovers $25K in back wages for engineer who sought protected leave
ORLANDO, FL – The federal Family and Medical Leave Act protects workers from being forced by their employers to choose between their health or their job, so when a regional railroad fired an engineer who sought protected leave, the U.S. Department of Labor investigated.
Investigators with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division found Florida East Coast Railway LLC terminated a yard engineer in Jacksonville illegally after they requested federally protected leave for a qualifying health condition. After the request, the division learned the railway ordered a fit-for-duty medical examination without providing the employee a required 30-day notice. The employer then used information from the exam to reject the worker’s original employment application retroactively after nearly eight years of employment. Investigators determined the railway based its rejection on a company policy used in the past only to terminate employees during their first 120 days of employment.
The division determined Florida East Coast Railway’s retaliation and termination violated the worker’s rights under the Family and Medical Leave Act and recovered $25,000 in back wages for the engineer.
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