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Employment Law Briefings
Is Your Employee Handbook Promising More Benefits Than You Think?
Companies operating facilities staffed by fewer than 50 employees, take note: If your employee handbook is not drafted carefully, you may be guaranteeing Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) benefits to more employees than the statute requires.
Under the FMLA, employers must provide up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to eligible employees for certain family and medical reasons, after which the employee must be permitted to return to his or her previous (or a comparable) position. An employee is "eligible" if he or she has worked for the employer for one year, has worked at least 1,250 hours for the employer in the past year, and works within 75 miles of at least 49 other employees (the "numerosity requirement"). However, in a decision that could affect employers throughout the country, a federal trial court in Iowa ruled that an employer may be required to provide FMLA benefits to employees at facilities that do not meet the numerosity requirement.
On July 13, 2007, the court in Myers v. Tursso Company, Inc. held that under the doctrine of equitable estoppel, an employer can be bound by "misrepresentations" in its employee handbook that lead workers to believe they are eligible for FMLA benefits - if an employee reasonably relies on the misrepresentation and is harmed as a result. The alleged misrepresentation in Myers arose from a statement in the employee handbook that the book had been compiled to inform workers of "rules, policies, and benefits," and the omission of information about the numerosity requirement in the section of the handbook describing the FMLA.
The court concluded that a reasonable jury could determine that these factors were unmistakably likely to mislead employees into believing their eligibility for benefits depended only on the length of their employment and the number of hours worked. That is, the court found it reasonable to conclude that the employer's silence in the handbook regarding the numerosity requirement constituted a misrepresentation - despite the fact that the employer conspicuously hung posters explaining all of the FMLA's eligibility requirements.
Employers Can Protect Themselves
Clearly, employers must review their handbooks to ensure that eligibility requirements for all benefits are explicit. However, after Myers, this step alone is not sufficient. The court's ruling was based in part on the ground that it would be unreasonable to expect employees to know how many workers are employed within 75 miles of their facility. Additionally, the court refused to place on employees the burden of investigating whether the numerosity requirement is met. Thus, if some - but not all - of your employees are covered by the FMLA, your employee handbook and any other documentation about the FMLA provided to your employees must make that clear. Finally, locations where employees are not eligible for benefits due to the numerosity requirement should be specifically excluded by the policy.
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