FMLA Retaliation Claim Fails Where Decisionmaker Was Not Aware Of Leave When He Fired Employee
LONG v. TEACHERS’ RETIREMENT SYSTEM (October 23, 2009)
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The Illinois Teachers’ Retirement System (“TRS”) manages the pension benefits of Illinois’ retired teachers. For almost two decades, Julie Long received favorable performance reviews at her job there. During the mid-2000s, however, her performance deteriorated. She missed a lot of work, made a number of errors in processing data, and failed to conduct required training. TRS’ personnel manager, Gina Larkin, met with Long and her immediate supervisors in late 2005. Larkin learned of Long’s performance problems and her absences. She suggested that Long might be eligible for FMLA leave. Long applied for and took intermittent FMLA leave from October – January 2006. Larkin met with Long’s supervisors again and learned that Long’s performance and attendance issues remained uncorrected. Larkin recommended to Jon Bauman, the Executive Director, that Long be fired. Bauman, after reviewing Long’s evaluations and speaking with her supervisor, decided to fire her. Long brought suit, alleging that her termination was in retaliation for taking FMLA leave. The district court granted summary judgment to TRS. Long appeals.
In their opinion, Chief Judge Easterbrook, Judge Sykes and District Judge Kendall affirmed. The FMLA does not allow an employer to discriminate against an employee for taking FMLA leave. Here, two of the three elements of a claim of discrimination – protected activity and adverse employment action --- are not disputed. The issue on appeal is whether there is a causal connection between the two. In order to do that, stated the Court, Long had to produce evidence that the decisionmaker acted with an unlawful purpose. Bauman had the only authority to fire a TRS employee. The record shows that Bauman not only did not act discriminatorily – he did not even know about Long’s FMLA leave. While the “cat’s paw” doctrine sometimes imputes a subordinate’s intent to a supervisor, the “singular influence” requirement of that doctrine does not exist here. The Court also rejected Long’s arguments that discriminatory intent could be inferred from TRS’ failure to follow its own disciplinary policy (the Court concluded that it did follow it) and from the sudden decline in her performance evaluations (the Court noted that the decline in evaluations prior to the protected activity does not support the inference.)
