|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Sometimes, Getting Paid Just Isn't Enough
To be eligible for FMLA leave, an employee must have put in at least 1,250 "hours of service" for an employer in the preceding 12 months. But are these hours of service calculated using the number of hours actually worked or the number of hours for which the employee was paid? A recent case from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals answers just that.
In Mutchler v. Dunlap Memorial Hospital, No. 06-3132 (6th Cir. May 2, 2007), the Plaintiff Carla Mutchler, a long-time nurse at Dunlap Memorial Hospital, joined Dunlap's popular "Weekender Program." Participants in this program were assigned two 12-hour shifts each weekend. Each nurse who worked all 48 scheduled hours in a 2-week period was paid for 68 hours of work.
Mutchler requested FMLA leave, which the hospital granted without verifying her eligibility. During the leave, the hospital discovered that Mutchler was 7 hours short of her required 1,250 hours of service. The hospital told Mutchler it would honor its grant of FMLA leave but that she would receive only non-FMLA leave for any extensions of that leave. Mutchler requested an extension, which was granted. When she returned to work, she found that her spot in the Weekender Program was taken and that she had been assigned regular hours. Mutchler sued, alleging violations of the FMLA.
The Sixth Circuit held that Mutchler was not an eligible employee under the FMLA because she had not worked the requisite 1,250 hours. Mutchler argued that her "hours of service" should be calculated not using her actual hours worked, but using the hours for which she was paid under the Weekender Program. Citing the FMLA, as well as Supreme Court precedent, the Sixth Circuit reasoned that "hours of service" are hours that "the employee is required to give [her] employer," not those that the employee uses "effectively for [her] own purposes." Thus, the hours for which Mutchler was paid, but did not work, did not count toward her FMLA eligibility. |
|
|
|
|
