Absent a contractual obligation to the contrary, common sense dictates that if an employee lies about the reason for an absence, an employer can terminate the employee for the lie. But, what if an employer (perhaps mistakenly) believes the reason for the absence was a lie, when in fact the reason for the absence (allegedly) is for an FMLA-protected reason? According to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Frederick Capps v. Mondelez Global LLC, that’s ok, too, so long as the employer honestly believed the reason for taking the leave was a lie. Keys to the court’s decision in Capps were:
- The existence of a company policy that prohibited dishonest acts; a prohibition that was repeated in the company’s FMLA policy, which specifically stated that submission of false information or the fraudulent use of FMLA could result in discipline up to and including discharge
- The company’s investigation into whether the employee had submitted false documentation in support of his request for intermittent FMLA and whether the employee had used FMLA leave for an impermissible purpose
- The company’s honest belief – based on its investigation – that the documentation the employee submitted, which the company found suspicious, did not support the employee’s claim for intermittent FMLA leave
- The company’s record of approving FMLA for the employee in the past