Skip to main content

One to Keep An Eye On: Williams v. Hostess Brands, LLC (U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia)


As with many labor & employment law related cases (& bills) being litigated around the country, there are always a few that stand out.  This is one to keep an eye on.


On December 8th, a lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia, in which the claimant alleged that Hostess Brands violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) and Family Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”) following her positive coronavirus test and request for time off to quarantine.

The lawsuit alleges that on January 19th, the claimant began experiencing coronavirus symptoms.  She was subsequently sent home from work and instructed to stay away from the workplace for 10 days.  A few days later, the claimant notified Hostess of her positive coronavirus test.  On January 28th, while the claimant was still quarantining, she was terminated.

This alleged conduct could be found to be in violation of both the ADA and FMLA.  The claimant claims she was terminated because of her disability (as defined under the ADA), because of her positive coronavirus results.  The claimant also claims she was unlawfully terminated because of her request for an accommodation under the FMLA.

Now bear in mind that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has stipulated that simply testing positive for the coronavirus does not automatically make an employee disabled under the ADA.  Rather, an employer would be required to conduct an assessment to determine whether an employee’s testing positive for the coronavirus qualified as a disability under the ADA.  An employee could be considered disabled under the ADA if the positive coronavirus test involved the employee being physically or mentally impaired in so much that the employee was substantially limited in one or more major life activities.  Granted, this assessment would depend on each individual and it is possible that some individuals that test positive for the coronavirus could be considered disabled under the ADA while others are not.

At this stage, Hostess has yet to file a formal response.  However, this is certainly a case worth following as things play out further.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NLRB: Discussion Among Employees About Tip Pooling is Protected Concerted Activity

  This Advice Memorandum from the National Labor Relations Board’s Associate General Counsel, Jayme Sophir, addressed whether employees which discussed and complained about tip pooling at work constituted protected concerted activity. In relevant part, an employer in New York operated a chain of steakhouses.  While tip pooling was in place at these steakhouses, some of the employees objected to it on the grounds that it was not transparent and improperly divided tips among the workers.  Employees were told not to complain or talk to each other about the tip pool and were told that doing so would endanger their jobs.  Despite the employer later attempting to provide some clarity as to how the tips were being divided, rancor still existed among some employees.  At one point, the employees were told by a general manager that some employees that had been talking about the tip pool were “cleared out” and the employer would continue to do so. In the Advice Memorandum, it was noted that emplo
Post a Comment
Read more

Happening Tomorrow: Connecticut’s Minimum Wage Increases

For those employers and employees alike in Connecticut, mark your calendars as tomorrow, the minimum wage rate increases in the state from $13/hour to $14/hour. This wage hike comes after Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont had signed Public Act 19-4 into law in 2019 which progressively raised the state’s hourly minimum wage rate every year for five years.  In fact, next year, the hourly wage rate will top out at $15/hour.  Beginning in January of 2024, the hourly wage rate will be indexed to the employment cost index. For additional information:   https://portal.ct.gov/Office-of-the-Governor/News/Press-Releases/2022/06-2022/Governor-Lamont-Reminds-Residents-That-Minimum-Wage-Is-Scheduled-To-Increase-on-Friday
Post a Comment
Read more

What I’ve Been Reading This Week

A few years ago, I remember when the “Fight for $15” movement was taking off around the country.  Lo and behold, it appears that a $15/hour minimum wage is not the stopping point, which should be no surprise.  As the below article notes, New York is aggressively moving to ramp up hourly wage rates even higher.  While all the  below articles are worth a read, I called particular attention to that one. As always, below are a couple article that caught my eye this week. Disney World Workers Reject Latest Contract Offer Late last week, it was announced that workers at Disney World had rejected the most recent contract offer from the company, calling on their employer to do better.  As Brooks Barnes at The New York Times writes, the unions that represent about 32,000 workers at Disney World reported their members resoundingly rejected the 5 year contract offer which would have seen workers receive a 10% raise and retroactive increased back pay.  While Disney’s offer would have increased pa
Post a Comment
Read more