The suit alleges HR upheld disputed write-ups, then fired him on vacation
A Lowe's project manager says he was fired after taking paternity leave — and the trail of write-ups, he alleges, began within weeks of his first request.
Maximo Plasencia filed a federal lawsuit against Lowe's Home Centers, LLC on February 24, 2026, in the Southern District of Florida, alleging that the home improvement giant retaliated against him for doing something the company's own policy allowed: taking time off to care for his newborn son.
The case, Plasencia v. Lowe's Home Centers, LLC, spans six counts across Title VII, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, and the Florida Civil Rights Act. But for HR professionals, the allegations read less like a legal brief and more like a cautionary playbook on how internal processes can go sideways.
Here is the timeline Plasencia lays out. He formally requested fifty percent of his paternity leave on or about June 5, 2024. Roughly two weeks later, he received his first verbal performance warning. The reasons, he alleges, were vague — generalized comments about communication style with no concrete examples cited.
Months later, in late November 2024, he told his supervisor, Aaron Minton, that he planned to take his remaining leave. On or about December 5, a second warning landed, this time citing a timeline error from a meeting nearly three weeks earlier. No one had raised the issue before his renewed leave request.
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