FMLA: Department of Labor Overstepped Authority

Abstract

In Ragsdale v. Wolverine World-Wide the U.S. Supreme Court held that the U.S. Department of Labor overstepped its authority by requiring employers to formally indicate when they are counting an employee's leave of absence against that employee's entitlement under the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA). Ragsdale addressed the administrative burdens of notice present in situations where employers offer a more generous leave policy than the statutory minimums offered by the FMLA. In so doing, the court sought to answer the question of how to reconcile the promotion of generous leave policies in the private sector with simultaneous protection of the relatively new FMLA rights entitlement. The court's 5—4 decision highlights sharp judicial disagreement about how to best achieve this balance. Determining whether employers should provide formal notice that an employee's absence is FMLA-related also illustrates how a traditional-separation-of-powersa nalysis in the health-care context is increasingly complicated by administrative regulations.