Warning: Managers & HR pros can be personally liable for FMLA violations

by Christian Schappel

Courts have ruled that managers and supervisors can be held personally liable for FLSA violations. And now, in a new twist, courts are saying you can be individually liable for FMLA violations as well. Here’s why and when. 

In a nutshell, the FMLA says that an employer can be:

“… any person who acts, directly or indirectly, in the interest of an employer to any of the employees of such employer …

And employers can be held liable for FMLA violations — even if those “employers” are individuals within a company.

So how do you determine who qualifies as an employer under the law? Courts have recently ruled that the FMLA’s definition of employer closely tracks the definition of employer under the FLSA and, therefore, have reasoned that the standards used to evaluate employers under the FLSA should be applied to FMLA cases as well.

In other words, courts can look at the “economic reality” of a situation to determine an individual’s level of control over an employee — and, thus, that individual’s liability under the FMLA.

Employee claims HR director is liable

Recently, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit used this very line of thinking to determine that Shaynan Garrioch, the director of HR for the Culinary Institute of America (CIA), could potentially be held individually liable for FMLA violations allegedly committed against Cathleen Graziadio, CIA’s payroll administrator.

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