Employment Law News: Recent Appeals Court Decisions May Impact Harassment and Leave Policies
Two recent decisions by federal courts of appeal could impact employers’ harassment policies and their approach to the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), according to DEHS attorney Sue Brunick Simons.
In EEOC v. V & J Foods, Inc., the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals said certain employers may have to tailor their complaint procedures to teenagers. Although recognizing that employers need not tailor complaint procedures to the competence of each employee, it found that part of the business plan of a McDonald’s franchise was “to employ teenagers, part-time workers often working for the first time.” Because the franchisee knew it had many teenage employees, “the company was obligated to suit its procedures to the understanding of the average teenager.” The Court said a complaint filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission could proceed because the franchise’s harassment policy and complaint procedure was insufficient and “likely to confuse even adult employees.”
Several weeks earlier, the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals said an employee’s bizarre behavior after a stray dog wandered into the workplace “was so bizarre that it amounted to constructive notice of the need for [FMLA] leave.” In Stevenson v. Hyre Electric Co., the court said, “Lengthy encounters of yelling and swearing at one’s superiors so severe that a company locks out an employee with a previously unblemished record for safety concerns, coupled with that employee’s calling the police because her belongings have been moved to another desk, are undeniably unusual and could be viewed . . . as unusual enough to give [the employer] notice of a serious mental health condition.”
Neither decision is necessarily binding on employers in South Dakota but certainly may be looked to by agencies and courts with jurisdiction over them, according to Simons. She heads up the Employment Law Practice Group at DEHS, which can assist employers with a full range of employment-related issues and litigation.