An employee was denied several promotions over a short period of time. His explanation: He was being retaliated against because his wife — who worked for the same company — had sued for FMLA violations.

The court didn’t buy it. Why not? Because the man was never actively involved in his wife’s lawsuit. The FMLA didn’t offer any protection just because he was married to someone who sued the company.

FMLA retaliation is possible

Employees can sometimes sue for retaliation based on other people’s FMLA claims. In this case, the employee could have won if he had:

• helped his wife file a charge or complaint
• participated in an investigation, or
• testified on her behalf.

Cite: Elsensohn v. St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office

In addition to protecting employees who have disabilities, the ADA also makes it illegal to discriminate against an employee who “has a relationship or association” with a disabled person. Usually, that means a disabled family member, though, unlike the FMLA, for example, the law doesn’t require a familial relationship.

In one recent case, a woman was fired by her employer while her husband was being treated for cancer. Shortly before she was fired, an exec at the company asked her about the costs of her medical claims – which were high because of the cancer treatments – and asked if she’d looked into any less-expensive methods of care. She was later fired, and she sued. The court ruled in the woman’s favor, finding it likely that she was let go because of her husband’s illness (Cite: Dewitt v. Proctor).

More heads up

In addition to benefits-related issues, here are some other ways companies can slip up and find themselves in court:

• The company won’t hire or promote an employee with a disabled child, based on the belief that the employee would miss too much work while caring for the child.
• A manager puts special demands on an employee (for example, being stricter when approving leave requests or flex-time than with other workers) because of a fear that he or she might miss too much work to care for a disabled family member.

One thing the ADA doesn’t require companies to do is accommodate the non-employee’s disability. For example, you won’t need to make exceptions to your attendance policy to let an employee care for someone who’s disabled (however, cases like that often are covered by the FMLA).

To read the EEOC’s guidance on association discrimination, click here.