In September 2010 and over the months that followed, Jeffrey Angstadt, a furniture sales executive told his employer, Staples Contract and Commercial, Inc., a subsidiary of Staples, Inc., that he needed to take leave to care for his critically ill wife. While Angstadt was eligible for federal workplace protections for those coping with the illness of a family member, no one at Staples notified him of his rights to a leave.
For the next two years, Angstadt used his personal, sick and vacation days, and worked remotely as needed to balance his work obligations and to care for his wife.
In January 2012, his supervisors decided Angstadt was not meeting his job responsibilities, and the company fired him. Two months later, an investigation began by the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division district office in Columbia.
Following the investigation, the department then sued Staples in June 2013 for violating the Family and Medical Leave Act in its failure to inform Angstadt of his rights.
As part of a settlement agreement reached with Staples Inc. and Staples Contract and Commercial Inc., the Staples defendants have agreed to pay Angstadt $137,500 in lost wages and benefits, plus an equal amount in liquidated damages. The agreement was reached in a consent decree approved by a federal court.
As a part of the settlement, the company will also promote an enterprise-wide policy for compliance with the FMLA by providing training for human resources and other managerial personnel with respect to FMLA notice and eligibility requirements; post FMLA enforcement posters in the workplace; and investigate and respond to complaints of potential FMLA violations concerning an employee's notice of FMLA rights, including correcting violations when discovered.
Staples Contract and Commercial, Inc. offers business supplies to Fortune 1000 organizations as a subsidiary of Staples, Inc.
An employer is prohibited from interfering with, restraining or denying the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, any FMLA right. Prohibited conduct includes failing to notify an employee of his or her rights under the FMLA when aware that the employee is taking FMLA-qualifying leave.