The Federal FMLA Blog: Retaliation reports that an employee’s opposition to the denial of FMLA leave to a coworker was found to constitute unlawful reprisal.
Another new development is a Federal court case in Arizona which found that eliminating an employee’s title and position, and then putting the employee on indefinite paid administrative leave against his will while he was on medical leave was found to constitute unlawful retaliation under the FMLA. This is one of the first expansions of the new criterion established in the Burlington v. White Supreme Court case (discussed below) to the FMLA. The court found that the undesired leave was “materially adverse,” and thus met the standard for retaliation, despite the fact that the employee continued to be paid. See Foraker v. Apollo Group, Inc (D. Ariz. 2006)
