By Laurie Jirak, The Murray Law Group, P.C.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota recently had to decide whether a railroad’s decision to terminate just one employee in a reduction in force was an unlawful retaliation against the employee for exercising his Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) rights.
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Lance Schultz was employed by Soo Line Railroad. As a frontline manager (FLM) trainer, he was required to travel between sites to conduct training. One year into his employment, his supervisor discovered that he was skipping required work hours during his travel days.
Schultz was instructed to send in his travel itineraries for review, which he failed to do on multiple occasions. Over the next few months, he was continuously reprimanded for a lack of reliability and taking unauthorized leave.
In the summer of 2013, a training supervisor announced that Soo Line was planning significant changes to the FLM team. Specifically, the company planned to change the training method from on-site “over-the-shoulder” training to off-site classroom instruction.
The content of the training was also going to change and would include teaching employees how to operate a rail yard. The projected timeline for the changes was announced in a teamwide e-mail at the end of 2013.
Schultz was worried about his future with the company. He did not have as much experience as other trainers. In fact, he was the only member of the team who did not have railroad industry or operations experience.
In November 2013, Schultz took FMLA leave for anxiety.