Class Action Alleges Toyota ‘Interferes’ with Employees’ Protected Medical Leave [UPDATE]

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A Toyota employee alleges the automaker has illegally interfered with his and other workers’ use of federally protected medical leave by “overcalculating” the amount of time off the job that they actually use. 

The 12-page lawsuit in Kentucky says that although the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) entitles eligible employees to 12 weeks of leave per year, which an employer must calculate based on an individual’s actual work week, Toyota has unlawfully miscalculated FMLA leave based on a 40-hour workweek, equaling 480 hours over a 12-week period, without regard to the number of hours the plaintiff and other employees actually work or are scheduled to work. 

The case argues that by converting employees’ 12-week leave entitlement into a 480-hour leave entitlement based on 40-hour workweeks, defendants Toyota Motor North America and Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A. have interfered with the FMLA leave of those who work or are scheduled to work more than 40 hours in a week, as the individuals ultimately receive less than 12 weeks of leave. 

According to the complaint, the plaintiff, who works at Toyota’s Hebron, Kentucky facility, suffers from “several serious health conditions.” Per the suit, the plaintiff requested and Toyota approved FMLA leave as a result of the conditions, and the man has “taken leave on a continual basis and on an intermittent basis,” the case says. The lawsuit relays that the plaintiff regularly works, or is scheduled to work, more than 40 hours per week, including overtime on Saturdays and Sundays. 

The complaint states that the FMLA’s implementing regulations provide that each employee’s actual work week should be the basis for their leave entitlement. Thus, the lawsuit says, if an employee who would otherwise work 40 hours in a week uses eight hours of FMLA leave, the person would use one-fifth of a week of FMLA leave. If a worker who puts in 48 hours per week uses eight hours of FMLA leave, then they would use one-sixth of a week of FMLA leave, the case says. 

The lawsuit goes on to state that if an employee’s use of leave is variable to the extent that an employer is unable to determine exactly how many hours the person would otherwise have worked, the employer may calculate a weekly average of hours scheduled over the prior 12 months to determine the amount of leave to which the employee is entitled. However, if an employee’s schedule undergoes a permanent or long-term change, the employer must use the hours worked under the new schedule as the basis for calculating leave entitlement, the suit states. 

The suit contends that Toyota has allotted the plaintiff less FMLA leave than he’s entitled to by law as a result of calculating his leave based on only 480 work hours, and not the amount of time he actually puts in each week. 

The plaintiff alleges that he’s “incurred discipline,” and been subject to potential termination, as a result of Toyota’s failure to correctly calculate his FMLA leave. 

The lawsuit looks to cover all individuals similarly situated to the plaintiff who are eligible to take intermittent FMLA leave and have had their leave entitlement miscalculated based on Toyota improperly allotting all employees 480 hours of FMLA leave instead of 12 weeks of FMLA leave based on their actual work schedules.

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