Parking: June 2010 - 8

Legal Matters Michael Stevens
Company Permitted to Demote Employee on Return from FMLA Leave
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit recently ruled that an employer did not violate the Family and Medical Leave Act (the FMLA) when it demoted a female employee upon her return from maternity leave based on information it learned about her performance while she was out on leave. Schaff v. SmithKline Beecham Corporation d/b/a GlaxoSmithKline, No. 09-10806 (11th Cir. April 6, 2010). Schaaf worked for GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), first as a sales representative and then as a district sales manager (DSM), before assuming the role of regional vice president (RVP) in 1999. In her new role as RVP, Schaaf was tasked with overseeing a region that included all of Florida and a portion of southern Georgia—a region that, at the time, had consistently failed to meet GSK’s sales expectations. Schaaf’s superiors encouraged her to address these shortfalls by approaching the RVP position with creativity and innovation, and indicated that the goal of increasing sales volume in the faltering region was of central importance. After a few years at the helm, the early signs indicated that Schaaf had successfully risen to the challenge; under her direction, the region’s performance increased markedly and its sales figures returned to satisfactory levels. Eventually, however, problems began to develop between Schaaf and her subordinates. In July 2002, several DSMs who reported to her complained to the Human Resources Department about such things as her antagonistic and inflexible management style, chronic inaccessibility, poor communication skills, harsh and demanding demeanor, and tendency to play favorites, as well as about her failure to provide written feedback on performance appraisals, her practice of sharing some DSMs’ confidential performance evaluation information with other employees, her unwillingness to respond to voicemail messages for weeks at a time, and her failure to acknowledge the contributions of her subordinates.

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“Schaff claimed she was denied the right to be reinstated to her former job.”

As a result of these complaints, Schaaf was placed on a performance improvement plan (PIP). Among other things, the PIP required Schaaf to issue previously uncompleted written performance reviews to her subordinates, to attend management training programs, and to complete teambuilding exercises with her subordinates. During the same month, Schaaf advised her superior that she was pregnant and planned to take maternity leave under the FMLA in early 2003. Schaaf missed several deadlines established by the PIP, and as a result, the PIP was extended until after she returned from her leave of absence. Schaaf began her leave on Jan. 21, 2003. During her absence, an interim RVP took her place, and the subordinates reported that the region functioned significantly better while Schaaf was gone. While serving as RVP, the interim also discovered and corrected several significant administrative problems that had occurred under Schaaf’s watch, including scores of expense reports that Schaaf had ignored and several invoices from outside creditors that Schaaf had failed to pay. The subordinates reported that, under the interim RVP, productivity had increased, communication had improved, and morale was markedly higher.

National Parking Association PArkINg June 2010

Parking: June 2010

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