Opinion ID: 794754
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Des Moines, Iowa is Plaintiff's worksite.

Text: 63 We find that Plaintiff's worksite is located in Des Moines because Plaintiff received his work assignments from Des Moines and reported to Des Moines. As noted above, DOL regulations define worksite as the site to which [traveling employees] are assigned as their home base, from which their work is assigned, or to which they report. 29 C.F.R. § 825.111(2). Thus, the majority of the factors that the DOL has designed as relevant to the worksite inquiry weigh in favor of finding that Des Moines is Plaintiff's worksite. 64 Additionally, while it is true that a more specific provision of § 825.111(2) states that a transportation employee's worksite is the terminal to which they are assigned to report for work, depart, and return after completion of a work assignment, there is no clear terminal in this situation that would divest Des Moines of its worksite status. See 29 C.F.R. § 825.111(2). As the example following the terminal provision indicates, a terminal is only a worksite if it is owned or controlled by the defendant-company. The example in § 825.111 reads as follows: 65 For example, an airline pilot may work for an airline with headquarters in New York, but the pilot regularly reports for duty and originates or begins flights from the company's facilities located in an airport in Chicago and returns to Chicago at the completion of one or more flights to go off duty. The pilot's worksite is the facility in Chicago. 66 29 C.F.R. § 825.111 (emphasis added). The terminal from which the pilot leaves is termed a company[] facilit[y] indicating the defendant-company must actually own or exercise control over the terminal for it to be a proper worksite. See also 29 C.F.R. 825.111(2) (For example, if a construction company headquartered in New Jersey opened a construction site in Ohio, and set up a mobile trailer on the construction site as the company's on-site office, the construction site would be the worksite for any employee hired locally....) In the instant case, Plaintiff departs and returns to a public truck stop, a glorified gas station, over which Defendant has no authority or control. Consequently, we cannot find that Mt. Sterling is Plaintiff's worksite within the meaning of the FMLA. 67 Moreover, designating Des Moines as Plaintiff's worksite furthers the purpose of the FMLA's worksite exclusion. As the Tenth Circuit explained in Harbert, 391 F.3d at 1149, the purpose of the worksite exclusion is to relieve employers, even potentially large employers, of finding temporary replacements for employees who work at geographically scattered locations. Companies with less than fifty employees at a particular worksite may be unduly strained in an attempt to grant employees with FMLA leave. See id. In the instant case, the record clearly indicates that trucking schedules and assignments are coordinated in Des Moines. Consequently, were an employee to call in sick or request FMLA leave, his replacement would necessarily be determined by the dispatchers in Des Moines. There is no evidence in the record that Plaintiff's replacement would need to be from Mt. Sterling. In fact, the only evidence supports a contrary conclusion. Plaintiff's route includes numerous stops, in such various locations as Illinois and Pennsylvania, and there is no reason to believe that a driver living in one of these locations could not pick up Plaintiff's truck in one of numerous locations. 68 Finally, the worksite provision of the FMLA is an exclusionary provision in a remedial statute. Following traditional canons of statutory interpretation, remedial statutes should be construed broadly to extend coverage and their exclusions or exceptions should be construed narrowly. See Bridewell v. Cincinnati Reds, 155 F.3d 828, 831 (6th Cir.1998). Designating Des Moines as Plaintiff's worksite would extend coverage of the FMLA not just to Plaintiff but to all truck drivers receiving assignment from Des Moines dispatchers. Such a designation would be in keeping with the FMLA's remedial purpose and traditional canons of statutory interpretation. III.