Court Holds Individual Supervisor Liable under Family and Medical Leave Act

In a case of first impression in Massachusetts, a federal judge ruled that individual supervisors can be personally liable to employees for violations of the Family and Medical Leave Act.

The employee involved claimed he was treated differently at work and retaliated against in part because he requested medical leave. He sued both his employer and his immediate supervisor despite the fact that the FMLA requires only ‘employers’ to provide certain leave rights to workers. The supervisor’s motion to dismiss on this ground – he is not, he argued, an employer, and lawsuits against individuals are not authorized by the FMLA – was denied by the court, which cited to higher court interpretation of the Fair Labor Standards Act, a federal law whose definition of the term “employer” is almost identical to that in the FMLA.

The decision serves as a warning to managers and others to pay close attention to their companies’ conduct in cases that might implicate the FMLA. The law applies to employers of greater than 50 employees, and to workers who work at least 1250 hours in a prior year. It permits qualified employees to take unpaid leaves of absence for their own health reasons and those of certain close relatives. Massachusetts employers should also note that the Commonwealth provides similar protections to employees of smaller companies.