A Midwestern farm company that fired a manager on the day he was due to return from FMLA leave has withstood the ex-employee’s allegations of FMLA retaliation and interference in a 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling affirming a district court decision. The case is Winterhalter v. Dykhuis Farms, Inc., No. 11-1743 (July 23, 2012).
Facts of the Case
Dykhuis Farms, a family-owned pig farm with multiple facilities in Michigan and Indiana, cited two primary reasons for Robert J. Winterhalter’s job termination: the company’s serious economic hardship and the employee’s status as the highest-paid and lowest-performing member of the three workers in his unit.
Winterhalter alleged that Dykhuis Farms terminated him because he took medical leave after undergoing surgery to repair damage to his rotator cuff, which he had injured in a fall. He said that his job should be protected under the FMLA reinstatement provision which entitles an employee “to be restored by the employer to the position of employment held by the employee when the leave commenced…or to an equivalent position” with equivalent pay and benefits.
However, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan and the appeals court both agreed that Dykhuis Farms had the right to dismiss Winterhalter because the company had proved that it had “a legitimate reason unrelated to the exercise of FMLA rights for engaging in the challenged conduct.”
For the complete article, see “Courts Uphold Firing…