Federal Investigation Restores FMLA to Airport Workers

Airport workers, such as cleaners and maintenance crews, have enough stressors during the coronavirus pandemic, such as trying to protect their health while working around large groups of people. Employees of Los Angeles World Airports, which is the owner and operator of Los Angeles International Airport and Van Nuys Airport, were also dealing with a failure to their medical leave request system, leading to long delays in getting their medical leave approved and even disciplinary actions for taking time off.

An investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor found this system failure resulted in invalid disciplinary personnel actions and violations of the U.S. Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Investigators found medical leave requests went through five levels of administrative review before reaching human resources about one month later. Some requests were pending for several months. The FMLA requires employers to provide workers with notice of their eligibility for leave within five business days of the initial request.

The employer also improperly relied on second opinions from an in-house physician, which led to workers not taking their needed and available leave.

As a result of the investigation, Los Angeles World Airports made sweeping changes to its FMLA request system. The newly redesigned system includes a new web-based tool that provides workers updates and approvals within 24 hours, instead of months. The employer no longer routinely requires second opinions from health care providers, created a reference guide for leave specialists, and removed all adverse actions against employees.