FMLA: Court Sees No Employer Interference With Nurse’s Rights.

FMLA: Court Sees No Employer Interference With Nurse’s Rights.

Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter for the Nursing Profession

June 2017

A hospital staff nurse took leave to which she was entitled by the US Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) for complications during her pregnancy and the premature birth of her child. When she wanted to return to work at the expiration of her FMLA leave the nurse’s physician would only let her go back to work with medical restrictions against strenuous physical activity. The hospital informed the nurse that no light-duty nursing position was avail-able. Nevertheless the hospital approved the nurse for six months of extended medical leave during which time the hospital would continue to pay for her medical insurance and other benefits.

While out on medical leave from the hospital the nurse took a full-time nursing position in a nursing home. When the hospital’s human resources department found out the nurse was working full time while out on medical leave, the hospital terminated the nurse’s employment. The nurse sued the hospital for alleged interference with her FMLA rights. The US District Court for the District of Maryland dismissed the nurse’s lawsuit.

The FMLA requires an employer to reinstate the employee to the same or an equivalent position when the employee’s FMLA leave has expired. However, the FMLA imposes no requirement that the employer make an allowance for an employee’s medical restriction stemming from the residuals of the condition for which the employee took FMLA leave. The flip-side of the FMLA right to reinstatement in the same position is that the employee must go back to that position and has no right to demand another.

The Court validated the hospital’s policy which prohibits misusing its generous medical leave policy to take another job. The hospital committed no FMLA interference by firing the nurse over that issue. Ibewuike v. Hospital, 2017 WL 2131842 (D. Maryland, May 17, 2017).