The Essential Guide to Family & Medical Leave

chapter 10 | reinstatement | 215
Lessons from the
Real World
Taking away an employee’s obligation to travel
for work does not violate the FMLA’s right to
reinstatement.
Phyllis Smith was the Assistant Supervisor of School Accounts for the East
Baton Rouge Parish School Board. She assisted school principals and staff
with bookkeeping, which included travel to the parish’s schools to provide
bookkeeping training and support to school officials.
Smith took parental leave under the FMLA. When she returned to work,
her job description was revised. She no longer traveled to assist school
officials onsite; instead, she audited the schools’ books from a central office
location. Smith agreed that her pay was the same and that her job duties
were largely similar. However, she filed a lawsuit claiming that her new job
was not equivalent to her old position because of the elimination of her
travel responsibilities.
The court disagreed. It found that she was doing essentially the same work
for the same pay before and after she took time off. The court also decided
that eliminating travel from her job duties was only a minimal, intangible
change—not a significant enough difference to support a lawsuit.
Smith v. East Baton Rouge Parish School Board, 453 F.3d 650 (5 th Cir. 2006).
The FMLA doesn’t prevent you from giving an employee returning from
leave a promotion or some other benefit, as long as the employee wants it.
Similarly, if the employee asks to be restored to a different position, you can
grant the request. For example, if an employee returning from FMLA leave
is planning to move soon and requests a transfer to a different facility, you
may grant the request without running afoul of the law. If the employee
feels pressured or coerced to take a different position, however, that violates
the FMLA.