Courts Ruling for Employers Who Spy on Suspected Malingering Employees
Employers are increasingly hiring private investigators to spy on employees believed to be abusing the Family Medical Leave Act, and courts are upholding their right to do so.
The investigators have caught employees supposed to be taking sick leave engaged in activities such as bowling, yard work and even working for a different employer, the National Law Journal reports.
Lawyers for workers say the surveillance is harassment that interferes with the right to take leave under the act, but courts aren’t siding with their claims, the story says.
In one recent decision, the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an employer’s right to investigate a woman on leave who was caught on camera mowing lawns as a second job. The case is Vail v. Raybestos (PDF).
Matthew Effland of Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart represented the employer in the case. “I think this ruling says—at its heart—that somebody who is an employee and wants to use the FMLA as a get-out-of-work-free card better beware,” he told the publication.
