August 10, 2020
Leave
Disability Discrimination

The Week in FFCRA Complaints: Yet More Wrongful Terminations and Retaliation

As we noted last week, employers seem not to have gotten the message on paid leave under FFCRA and the two notable cases that came up this week both involve employer retaliation and wrongful termination against employees who were protected under FFCRA. One was denied FFCRA-mandated time off to care for his four children, one of whom had special needs. The other was denied compensation and subsequently terminated after showing symptoms of and subsequently testing positive for Covid-19.

  • Complaint, Pacitti v. Ricciardi Bros. Old City, Inc., No. 2:20-cv-03734 (E.D. Pa. July 31, 2020)
  • Plaintiff, a driver, sued his employer for retaliation and wrongful termination in violation of FFCRA. Plaintiff requested protected paid leave under FFCRA to care for his four children whose schools were closed as a result of COVID-19. His employer informed him that he could take accrued paid time off or use 10 days of emergency paid sick leave after exhausting his FFCRA leave. When Plaintiff was ready to return to work, his employer notified him that he had been replaced and offered him a different position that required a substantially longer commute from Plaintiff’s residence. Because Plaintiff needed to be close to his special needs son, he had to decline the new offer. However, Plaintiff believed his original job was protected while he was taking paid time off.
  • Complaint, Romero v. Accurate Painting of Northwest Florida Inc., No. 3:20-cv-05703-MCR-EMT (N.D. Fla. Aug. 3, 2020)
  • Plaintiff, a painter, sued her employer, a construction contractor, for retaliation in violation of FFCRA. Plaintiff and her crew were ordered to take a COVID-19 test. Plaintiff started feeling sick before taking the test and did not return to work. She received a positive COVID-19 test and was advised to quarantine. When she inquired about her weekly payment while in isolation, she was informed that she would not be paid because she was already fired.

Additional filing: Complaint, Wright v. Denali Ingredients, LLC, No. 2:20cv1185 (E.D. Wis. Aug. 3, 2020).

white line

Updates on the Masquerade, What Employers Should Know

June 1, 2021
No items found.
Updated guidance from the CDC and Gov. Cuomo on masking employees in offices.

Wage Gaps and Cutthroat Culture Highlight Gender Disparity, ABA Report Finds

May 13, 2021
Gender Discrimination
In a new report undertaken by the American Bar Association, several key aspects of the legal profession are causing women attorneys to consider leaving the field. Among the most significant factors are the persistent pay gap based on gender and the hyper-individualistic, competitive nature of the industry, which often pits lawyers against one another, degrading any sense of community workplace culture.

Childcare and Paid Leave Funding Part of $1.8tn “American Families Plan” 

April 29, 2021
Paid Family Leave
In a speech to a joint session of Congress, President Biden unveiled the “The American Families Plan,” the third part of the president’s push to power a post-pandemic recovery. Along with the $1.9 trillion fiscal stimulus and a proposal for an infrastructure plan that would earmark $2.3 trillion to upgrade roads, bridges, railroads, and the country’s aging power grid, the American Families Plan seeks to fund a wide range of initiatives to address deep-lying problems on the job market that the pandemic exposed, and hopefully help the more than 2 million women who left the workforce in 2020 to return.
View More

Get In Touch

Knowing where to turn in legal matters can make a big difference. Contact our employment lawyers to determine if we can help you.
Contact Us
red arrow