The Essential Guide to Family & Medical Leave

218 | the essential guide to family and medical leave
Lessons from the
Real World
A company must reinstate an employee
within two days or face the consequences.
Lori Hoge worked at a Honda production plant. Honda assigned her to a
“door line” position, which accommodated work restrictions she had because
of a back injury.
On May 11, 2000, Hoge began taking FMLA leave for a planned abdominal
surgery. She reported for work on June 27. She said this was the agreedupon
date for her return to work; Honda said that it didn’t expect her to
return until sometime in July.
When Hoge reported for work, Honda told her it did not have an available
position that accommodated her work restrictions because of changes to
its manufacturing process. On July 31, 2000, she was reinstated on a parttime
basis to a position on the engine line, and she didn’t receive a full-time
position until September 18.
Hoge sued Honda for failing to reinstate her when she was ready to return
to work. Honda argued that it was entitled to take a “reasonable” amount
of time to find an appropriate job, both because it didn’t know when Hoge
was returning to work and because her former position had changed.
The court sided with Hoge. The FMLA says employees are entitled to
reinstatement upon their return to work, not within a reasonable time after
they return. If Honda didn’t know that Hoge was returning to work on June
27, it was entitled to take two days—the amount of notice Hoge should
have given—to reinstate her to an equivalent, full-time position. Because
Honda took several months to fully reinstate Hoge, it lost the case.
Hoge v. Honda of America, 384 F.3d 238 (6th Cir. 2004).