Plaintiff Antoinette Pirant sued the Postal Service alleging that she was terminated in violation of Title I of the FMLA for missing work due to a covered chronic serious health condition. The record established that Pirant had worked 1248.8 hours in the 12 month period preceding the unscheduled absence that gave rise to her termination.
The court rejected Pirant's argument that the Postal Service failed to count two hours that she lost when she was wrongfully suspended by her supervisor and directed to clock out early one day. The court found the record void of evidence that Pirant's suspension was wrongful. Critically, the court noted that Pirant's argument "is based entirely on her own belief, which however honestly held is insufficient to warrant crediting her with the two hours she would have likely worked had she not been suspended."
Pirant argued that she should have been credited for the the several off-the-clock minutes she spent each day before and after work changing into and out of her work cloths, which included a work shirt, apron, gloves and shoes. The court disagreed. The court found that, pursuant to the Portal-to-Portal Act, the Postal Service was not required to compensate employees for:
activities which are preliminary to or postliminary to [an employee's] principal activity or activities, which occur either prior to the time on any particular workday at which such employee commences, or subsequent to the time on any particular workday at which he ceases, such principal activity or activities.
Ordinarily, changing and showering before and after work need not be compensated, unless it is an "integral and indispensable part of the principal activity of the employment." If changing clothes before and after work touches on vital considerations of health, safety, or hygiene, an employer may be required to compensate an employee for that time, and the time would count as "hours worked" for purposes of the 1250-hours FMLA eligibility requirement. For example, employees who work with toxic chemicals and were compelled to change and shower in facilities the employer was required to provide would satisfy that test.
Here, Plaintiff's job required her to handle the mail. The court found no evidence that handling mail involved contact with hazardous substances, nor that it required utilization of any type of protective or safety gear. At most, Pirant was required to use ordinary gloves and an apron. "Donning and doffing these items would have taken mere seconds and would have required little to no physical or mental exertion." As a result, the court concluded that Pirant was not entitled to compensation for these activities, and the Postal Service was not required to include time spent performing them in calculating her FMLA eligibility hours.
Finally, Pirant argued that the 1.2 hours shortfall should be disregarded as de minimis. In rejecting the argument, the Court observed that that other courts have strictly applied all of the FMLA's numerical eligibility requirements. The Court concluded that Pirant did not meet the eligibility requirements for FMLA leave due to her 1.2 hours shortfall in meeting the 1250 hours-of-service eligibility requirement. The Court awarded summary judgment to the Postal Service dismissing the case.
Comment: The requirement that a federal employee covered by Title I of the FMLA has worked 1250 hours in the 12 months immediately preceding the commencement of leave is strictly enforced. The case illustrates the type of arguments employees can try to make where the employer claims that the employee has not worked the requisite 1250 hours.
An argument that might have been raised in Pirant (but apparently was not) arises where the leave at issue is intermittent or on a so-called reduced leave schedule. That is, where an employee takes FMLA leave on more than one occasion during the 12-month FMLA leave year for the same underlying covered condition, such as a serious health condition. In that situation, the determination of whether the employee met the 1250-work-hour requirement is made once on the occasion of the first intermittent absence. If the employee meets the 1250-work hour requirement at that time, the employee has satisfied the eligibility requirement for all remaining related absences for the remainder of the 12-month FMLA leave year.
The case is relevant to federal employees covered by Title I of the FMLA and Congressional employees. Because Title II does not have the 1250-hour FMLA eligibility requirement, the case would not be applicable to federal civil service employees.
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