Takeaway: While small employers are not covered by the FMLA, they must take care not to assume coverage by offering FMLA leave in their handbooks. Other employment laws outside the FMLA may require them to provide medical or pregnancy leave.
An employee demoted after taking pregnancy leave could not prove Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) violations because her employer was too small for coverage, but could proceed to trial on other claims, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama ruled.
In January 2017, the plaintiff began employment with Wireless Time of Alabama Inc. as a store manager at its Selma, Ala., store. As store manager, the plaintiff received salary and sales commissions and store commissions in the range of $1,000 to $2,000 per month.
Wireless Time's employment handbook at the time provided that an employee may be granted FMLA of up to 12 weeks of leave in any 12-month period, but that extended maternity leaves that are not medically required are considered personal leaves of absence. It stated that an employee may, at the end of FMLA leave, return to her position or an equivalent position.
In August 2018, the plaintiff learned she was having a high-risk pregnancy. In December 2018, she notified her district manager and the human resource manager and requested leave due to having a high-risk pregnancy for which her physician ordered bed rest, and for maternity leave.
In response, Wireless Time told the plaintiff that FMLA was not...
The Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, Gayton McKenzie, has rejected claims that he has withdrawn or rescinded the gazetted renaming of Graaff-Reinet to Robert Sobukwe Town, along with other geo...