In April 2016, we advised that the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a Director of Human Resources (HRD)could exercise sufficient control over an individual’s employment to be subject to individual (personal) liability under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Graziadio v. Culinary Institute of America et al., 817 F.3d 415 (2016). At the time, the Second Circuit joined the Third and Fifth Circuits in applying the Fair Labor Standards Act’s (FLSA) economic-reality test to identify “employers” under the FMLA. A year later, a U.S. District Court judge in Massachusetts has determined that an employee can sue his supervisor individually for violating his rights under the FMLA. Eichenholz v. Brink’s Inc., et al., 2017 WL 19021456 (D. Mass. 2017).
In his decision, Judge Leo T. Sorokin wrote that although the First Circuit has yet to directly address the issue of individual liability under the FMLA, it has determined that individuals can be sued under the FLSA, whose definition of “employer” is “materially identical” to the FMLA. Further, the majority of federal courts that have addressed the issue have determined the FMLA allows for individual liability, a conclusion that has been “implicitly adopted” by the First Circuit. The Eichenholz decision comes on the heels of U.S. Magistrate Judge Katherine A. Robertson’s March, 2017 decision in Boadi v. Center for Human Development, Inc., 2017 WL 886972 (D. Mass. 2017) which similarly noted that “the national trend is towards permitting individual liability,” and that “a majority of federal courts to address the issue of private supervisor liability have concluded that such liability exists.” Boadi, 2017 WL 886972, at *10 (quoting Reilly v. Cox Enters., Inc., CA No. 13-785S (D.R.I. April 16, 2014)).
Now that the trend towards personal liability appears to have hit home, employers need to make sure that managers, supervisors and human resources professionals are properly trained, and that they understand their obligations and responsibilities under the law. Your NMP attorney is available to assist with training and resources, and to answer questions about this or other Labor and Employment Issues.
