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A former Amtrak employee failed to show that the rail operator fired him because he took intermittent leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act and because of his age and disability, rather than his failure to follow Amtrak’s attendance guidelines, a Pennsylvania federal judge held Wednesday.
The plaintiff in Bisher v. National Railroad Passenger Corporation sought, and was approved for, intermittent leave over a period of five years between 2015 and 2020 for anxiety. Per the judge, each of these requests followed a set process in which the plaintiff contacted Amtrak to request FMLA paperwork, brought the paperwork to his physician and returned it to Amtrak.
Beginning in 2019, however, the plaintiff began to receive warnings and a three-day suspension for attendance policy violations. Despite receiving an email from his supervisor reminding him about the company’s FMLA process, the plaintiff received further warnings ahead of his FMLA certification’s expiration in 2020.
After his certification expired, the plaintiff arrived late nine times without citing FMLA leave or his medical condition. Amtrak placed him at a termination level within its progressive discipline system, after which the plaintiff accrued three more absences before Amtrak moved to terminate him.
