High Court Favors Companies in Family and Medical Leave Case

A divided U.S. Supreme Court struck down a federal rule that penalized employers for failing to inform workers of their rights under the Family and Medical Leave Act.

The Labor Department rule was aimed at employers that don’t tell workers on leave that the time will count against the 12 weeks of guaranteed leave under federal law.

The rule gave those employees an additional 12 weeks off.

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, writing for the 5-4 court in a case from Arkansas, called that penalty “disproportionate and inconsistent with Congress’ intent.”

The ruling was part of a mixed day for employers at the nation’s highest court. In a separate ruling, the justices unanimously made it easier for workers to file job-bias complaints at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The justices concluded that a worker who files an EEOC complaint without submitting it under oath as required can correct the error after the deadline for the claim has expired.

In the family leave case, employer groups argued the Labor Department rule punished companies for providing benefits beyond those mandated by federal law.

It was the court’s first ruling to address the scope of the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act.

“This regulation discouraged companies from providing more generous leave policies than the FMLA requires,” said lawyer Ann Elizabeth Reesman, who filed a brief in the case for the Equal Employment Advisory Council, an employer trade group.

The law requires employers to give workers up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave during a one-year period to take care of a newborn or a sick relative or to deal with their own serious health condition.

Workers’ advocates said the ruling leaves companies with little incentive to tell employees about those rights.

“You now have a situation as a result of this case where employees may not be able to rely on what they’re being told because there’s really no penalty for screwing it up,” said Paula A. Brantner of Workplace Fairness.

The case involved Tracy Ragsdale, an Arkansas woman who worked at a factory owned by Wolverine World Wide Inc.

Ragsdale took 30 weeks of leave to be treated for cancer and then sought additional time off.

Ragsdale argued that she was entitled to an additional 12 weeks because the company didn’t designate the leave she took under the Family and Medical Leave Act.

Ragsdale sued the company and the federal court sided with Wolverine.