What You Need to Know

• Judge dismisses Families First Coronavirus Response Act by worker who was dismissed after his request for paid COVID leave was denied.
• Defendant, a medical billing company, reasonably relied on a broad healthcare exemption from Families First, even thought that exemption was cut back.
• Plaintiff's retaliation claim was rejected based on a finding that defendant had a good faith belief that he asserted a right that he was not entitled to claim.

A federal judge in Camden, N.J. has dismissed a suit, which claimed an employer wrongly denied paid sick leave to a worker who contracted COVID-19, and then fired him in retaliation for asking to take sick leave.

Senior U.S. District Judge Noel Hillman dismissed the case after the defendant employer, Physician and Tactical Healthcare Services of Pennsauken, a medical billing company doing business as PATHS, argued that it fell within the healthcare provider exemption to the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. The U.S. Department of Labor narrowed the healthcare provider exemption after a U.S. District Court judge in the Southern District of New York deemed that exemption overbroad and inconsistent with the FFCRA’s unambiguous terms. But Hillman found that the defense of good faith reliance applies to the FFCRA and protects the defendant company from liability.

US Federal District Judge Noel Hillman, Martin Luther King Courthouse, Newark, NJ..Handout.

Want to continue reading?
Become an ALM Digital Reader...

Read Full Story: https://www.law.com/njlawjournal/2022/07/26/withholding-paid-covid-19-leave-d...