Opinion ID: 2999168
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Failure to Return to Work

Text: Congress enacted the FMLA in order to assist workers in meeting the needs of their families and the demands of their jobs. See Price v. City of Fort Wayne, 117 F.3d 1022, 1023 (7th Cir. 1997). The statute responded to the perception that [p]rivate sector practices and government policies have failed to adequately respond to recent economic and social changes that have intensified the tensions between work and family. This failure continues to 10 No. 03-4204 impose a heavy burden on families, employees, employers and the broader society. [This legislation] provides a sensible response to the growing conflict between work and family by establishing a right to unpaid family and medical leave for all workers covered under the act. S. Rep. No. 103-3, at 4 (1993), reprinted in 1993 U.S.C.C.A.N. 2, 6 (“S. Rep. 103-3”). The FMLA makes available to eligible employees up to twelve weeks of leave during any twelve-month period for one or more of the following reasons: (1) the birth of the employee’s child; (2) the placement of a child with the employee for adoption or foster care; (3) the care of the employee’s child, spouse or parent who has a serious health condition; and (4) the inability of the employee himself to perform the functions of his position because of a serious health condition. 29 U.S.C. § 2612(a)(1). At the conclusion of a qualified-leave period, the employee is entitled to return to his former position of employment, or to an equivalent one, with the same terms and benefits. Id. § 2614(a)(1);1 see also 29 C.F.R. § 825.214(a). To protect these 1 Section 2614(a)(1) provides: (1) In general Except as provided in subsection (b) of this section, any eligible employee who takes leave under section 2612 of this title for the intended purpose of the leave shall be entitled, on return from such leave— (A) to be restored by the employer to the position of employment held by the employee when the leave commenced; or (B) to be restored to an equivalent position with equivalent employment benefits, pay, and other terms and (continued...) No. 03-4204 11 rights, the FMLA declares it “unlawful for any employer to interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of or the attempt to exercise, any right provided.” 29 U.S.C. § 2615(a)(1). In this case, Mr. Harrell contends that the Postal Service violated his rights under the FMLA by refusing to return him to his position after his physician provided an unqualified certification of his fitness to return to duty. An employee’s right to return to work after taking FMLA leave is not unlimited. The Act seeks to accomplish its purposes “in a manner that accommodates the legitimate interests of employers.” 29 U.S.C. § 2601(b)(3); see also 29 C.F.R. § 825.101(b) (“The enactment of the FMLA was predicated on two fundamental concerns—the needs of the American workforce, and the development of high-performance organizations.”). An employee is not entitled to “any right, benefit, or position of employment other than any right, benefit, or position to which the employee would have been entitled had the employee not taken the leave.” 29 U.S.C. § 2614(a)(3)(B); see also 29 C.F.R. § 825.216(a) (“An employee has no greater right to reinstatement or to other benefits and conditions of employment than if the employee had been continuously employed during the FMLA leave period.”). An employee returning from FMLA leave also is not entitled to restoration if he cannot perform the essential functions of the position or an equivalent position.2 29 C.F.R. 1 (...continued) conditions of employment. 29 U.S.C. § 2614(a)(1). 2 The Department of Labor regulations discuss an employee’s right to restoration: (continued...) 12 No. 03-4204 § 825.214(b). In addition, the Act permits an employer, as a condition of restoring employees who take FMLA leave, to have a policy that requires all such employees to obtain medical certification from their personal health care provider indicating that the employee is able to resume work. 29 U.S.C. § 2614(a)(4). The Act provides that nothing in § 2614(a)(4) “shall supersede a valid State or local law or a collective bargaining agreement that governs the return to work of employees.” Id. The interplay between the FMLA’s return-to-work provisions and a CBA that governs the return of employees who take leave due to a serious health condition is discussed in the statute’s accompanying regulations: (a) As a condition of restoring an employee whose FMLA leave was occasioned by the employee’s own serious health condition that made the employee unable (...continued) (a) On return from FMLA leave, an employee is entitled to be returned to the same position the employee held when leave commenced, or to an equivalent position with equivalent benefits, pay, and other terms and conditions or employment. An employee is entitled to such reinstatement even if the employee has been replaced or his or her position has been restructured to accommodate the employee’s absence. See also § 825.106(e) for the obligations of joint employers. (b) If the employee is unable to perform an essential function of the position because of a physical or mental condition, including the continuation of a serious health condition, the employee has no right to restoration to another position under the FMLA. However, the employer’s obligations may be governed by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). See § 825.702. 29 C.F.R. § 825.214. No. 03-4204 13 to perform the employee’s job, an employer may have a uniformly-applied policy or practice that requires all similarly-situated employees (i.e., same occupation, same serious health condition) who take leave for such conditions to obtain and present certification from the employee’s health care provider that the employee is able to resume work. (b) If State or local law or the terms of a collective bargaining agreement govern an employee’s return to work, those provisions shall be applied. Similarly, requirements under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) that any return-to-work physical be job-related and consistent with business necessity apply. . . . (c) An employer may seek fitness-for-duty certification only with regard to the particular health condition that caused the employee’s need for FMLA leave. The certification itself need only be a simple statement of an employee’s ability to return to work. A health care provider employed by the employer may contact the employee’s health care provider with the employee’s permission, for purposes of clarification of the employee’s fitness to return to work. No additional information may be acquired, and clarification may be requested only for the serious health condition for which FMLA leave was taken. The employer may not delay the employee’s return to work while contact with the health care provider is being made. 29 C.F.R. § 825.310(a)-(c). In the present case, the Postal Service maintains that it had the right, under the FMLA, to require Mr. Harrell to provide sufficient medical documentation from his health care provider or to be cleared for duty by a USPS-contract physician, as a condition of returning to work. In the Postal 14 No. 03-4204 Service’s view it appropriately employed, under 29 U.S.C. § 2614(a)(4), a uniform practice requiring employees to provide a fitness-for-duty certification from their personal health care provider; and, although the accompanying regulations provide that this certification need only be a simple statement of the employee’s ability to work, see 29 C.F.R. § 825.310(c), the FMLA’s certification provisions do not supersede a valid collective bargaining agreement that governs return to work for such employees, see 29 U.S.C. § 2614(a)(4); 29 C.F.R. § 825.310(b). Mr. Harrell challenges this theory on four grounds: (1) collateral estoppel forecloses the Postal Service from arguing that the terms of the National Agreement allow it to limit postal employees’ right to return to work after FMLA leave; (2) the postal handbooks and manuals are not part of the National Agreement; (3) the postal return-to-work provisions are invalid because they diminish a substantive right afforded by the FMLA; and (4) the requirements imposed by the Postal Service in this case contravened the postal returnto-work provisions. We shall address these issues in turn.
Mr. Harrell first contends that the Postal Service is precluded from arguing that its handbooks and manuals are negotiated parts of the National Agreement because it raised and lost this argument in Routes v. Henderson, 58 F. Supp. 2d 959, 994 (S.D. Ind. 1999). The doctrine of collateral estoppel provides that “once a court has decided an issue of fact or law necessary to its judgment, that decision is conclusive in a subsequent suit based on a different cause of action involving a party to the prior litigation.” Mendoza, 464 U.S. at 158. The “offensive use of collateral estoppel occurs when No. 03-4204 15 a plaintiff seeks to foreclose a defendant from relitigating an issue the defendant has previously litigated unsuccessfully in another action against the same or a different party.” Id. at 159 n.4. Mr. Harrell seeks to invoke nonmutual collateral estoppel, which occurs when the plaintiff was a nonparty to the prior lawsuit. Id. The district court determined that applying this doctrine against the Postal Service was not appropriate. We review a district court’s decision whether to apply offensive collateral estoppel for an abuse of discretion. Parklane Hosiery Co. v. Shore, 439 U.S. 322, 331 (1979). As the district court recognized, the Supreme Court has established that nonmutual offensive collateral estoppel does not extend to litigation against the United States. Mendoza, 464 U.S. at 162. The United States differs from private litigants in that its litigation is geographically broad and often involves issues of national significance. Id. at 15960. Among other concerns expressed by the Court, precluding the United States from relitigating issues against different parties would “thwart the development of important questions of law by freezing the first final decision rendered on a particular legal issue” and would “deprive th[e] Court of the benefit it receives from permitting several courts of appeals to explore a difficult question before” it grants certiorari. Id. at 160. Mr. Harrell submits that Mendoza does not apply in this case because Congress has placed the Postal Service on the same footing as a private litigant by authorizing it to “sue and be sued.” 39 U.S.C. § 401. Mr. Harrell reads too much into this waiver of immunity: That the Postal Service is amenable to the judicial process does not “change the fact that the party being sued is still the federal government.” In re Young, 869 F.2d 158, 159 (2d Cir. 1989) (per curiam). Indeed, Congress has provided that the Postal Service “is 16 No. 03-4204 part of the executive branch of government, that its employees are part of the federal civil service, and that it possesses certain powers unique to governmental entities, such as the authority to exercise the power of eminent domain in the name of the United States.” Baker v. Runyon, 114 F.3d 668, 670-71 (7th Cir. 1997) (citing 39 U.S.C. §§ 201, 1001(b) & 401(9)). The “sue and be sued” provision, if anything, indicates that “waiver of sovereign immunity is necessary solely because the Postal Service is a government agency.” Id. (citing Western Sec. Co. v. Derwinski, 937 F.2d 1276, 1280 (7th Cir. 1991) (stating that the “sue or be sued” clause “permit[s] the suit to go forward notwithstanding that it is a suit against a federal agency”)); see also United States Postal Serv. v. Flamingo Indus. (USA) Ltd., 540 U.S. 736, 744 (2004) (“While Congress waived the immunity of the Postal Service, Congress did not strip it of its governmental status.”). Accordingly, we conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion in concluding that the use of collateral estoppel was not appropriate in this case, and, thus, the Postal Service may argue that the National Agreement incorporates the postal handbooks and manuals that relate to employees’ return to work.
The premise underlying the Postal Service’s position in this case is that the National Agreement incorporates by reference the regulations in the postal handbooks and manuals that govern an employee’s return to work after taking leave for a serious health condition. The Postal Service relies upon Article 19 of the agreement, which reads: Those parts of all handbooks, manuals and published regulations of the Postal Service, that directly relate No. 03-4204 17 to wages, hours or working conditions, as they apply to employees covered by this Agreement, shall con- tain nothing that conflicts with this Agreement, and shall be continued in effect except that the Employer shall have the right to make changes that are not inconsistent with this Agreement and that are fair, reasonable, and equitable. This includes, but is not limited to, the Postal Service Manual and the F-21, Timekeeper’s instructions. R.27, Ex.I, Ex.1 at 123. Mr. Harrell argues that this paragraph is too vague and general to incorporate the contents of the postal handbooks and manuals into the collective bargaining agreement. He also relies on the declaration of Greg Bell, the director of industrial relations for the APWU, who attests that the postal handbooks and manuals are not part of the National Agreement because they were promulgated unilaterally by the Postal Service, rather than through any collective bargaining between the Postal Service and the APWU. See R.27, Ex.I at ¶ 10. Other courts of appeals, by contrast, have concluded in analogous contexts that the provisions contained in the postal handbooks and manuals that affect working conditions are incorporated by reference into the National Agreement. See Woodman v. Runyon, 132 F.3d 1330, 1334 (10th Cir. 1997) (noting that the postal manual governing injury compensation was part of the National Agreement because “Article 19 . . . incorporates those parts of all USPS handbooks, manuals and published regulations which directly relate to wages, hours, or working conditions”); Kroll v. United States, 58 F.3d 1087, 1091 (6th Cir. 1995) (concluding that Postal Service employee suggestion program was incorporated into the National Agreement through the postal manual because Article 19 “incorporates by reference all 18 No. 03-4204 parts of postal handbooks, manuals, and regulations that ‘directly relate to wages, hours, or working conditions’ ”). Indeed, the APWU itself has argued in other litigation that Article 19 incorporates the postal handbooks and manuals into the National Agreement. For instance, in United States Postal Service v. American Postal Workers Union, 922 F.2d 256 (5th Cir. 1991), the Fifth Circuit noted that, [a]lthough article 19 states that nothing in the handbooks, manuals and regulations shall conflict with the Agreement, it does not specifically state that the Agreement incorporates these texts. Thomas A. Neill, Director of Industrial Relations for the APWU, whose duties include negotiation of the National Agreement and administration of the grievance procedure, states in his “declaration” that “[t]he handbooks and manuals are applied in labor relations between the APWU and USPS as part of the National Agreement.” These texts, Neill adds, are incorporated by reference into the Agreement and arbitrators routinely interpret them in deciding grievance arbitration cases. The Postal Service does not dispute Neill’s sworn declaration. Id. at 259 n.2. In light of the fact that both parties to the National Agreement have maintained previously that the postal handbooks and manual affecting working conditions are incorporated by reference into that agreement, Mr. Harrell stands in a weak position to assert otherwise. We agree with our sister circuits that Article 19 is sufficient to incorporate the postal handbooks and manuals relating to wages, hours or working conditions into the National Agreement. Certainly, the postal handbooks and manuals that govern an employee’s return to work after an extended absence relate to wages, hours or working conditions. No. 03-4204 19
Mr. Harrell next contends that, even if the postal return-towork regulations are part of a valid collective bargaining agreement, the Postal Service was not allowed to impose any condition on his return that is more stringent than what is specifically allowed by the FMLA, and, by doing so, the Postal Service violated rights protected by the FMLA. The Postal Service takes the opposite view. It maintains that the FMLA allows for a more stringent return-to-work certification if required by state law or if set forth in a CBA. Thus we arrive at the pivotal issue in this case: Whether the Postal Service can rely upon return-to-work regulations incorporated into a valid collective bargaining agreement to impose requirements on employees that are more burdensome than what is set forth in the statute. To resolve this issue, we begin with the language of the statute, specifically 29 U.S.C. §§ 2614(a)(4) and 2652. If the intent of Congress, as expressed in the language of the statute, is clear with respect to this issue, then “that is the end of the matter; for the court, as well as the agency, must give effect to the unambiguously expressed intent of Congress.” Chevron, U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837, 842-43 (1984). However, “if the statute is silent or ambiguous with respect to the specific issue,” the court must defer to the agency’s answer if it “is based on a permissible construction of the statute.” Id. at 843. Generally speaking, an agency’s interpretation of a statute that it administers is “permissible” if it is “reasonable.” Id. at 845. Section 2614(a)(4) permits employers to impose, as a condition of returning to work, a uniformly applied practice or policy that requires each employee to receive certification from the health care provider of the employee that the employee is able to 20 No. 03-4204 resume work, except that nothing in this paragraph shall supersede a valid State or local law or a collec- tive bargaining agreement that governs the return to work of such employees. 29 U.S.C. § 2614(a)(4). The legislative history for this section notes that the last phrase “clarifies that [§ 2614(a)(4)] was not meant to supersede other valid State or local laws or collective bargaining agreement that, for reasons such as public health, might affect the medical certification required for the return to work of an employee who had been on medical leave.” S. Rep. 103-3 at 32. Section 2652, in turn, reads:
Nothing in this Act or any amendment made by this Act shall be construed to diminish the obligation of an employer to comply with any collective bargaining agreement or any employment benefit program or plan that provides greater family or medical leave rights to employees than the rights established under this Act or any amendment made by this Act.
The rights established for employees under this Act or any amendment made by this Act shall not be diminished by any collective bargaining agreement or any employment benefit program or plan. 29 U.S.C. § 2652. The legislative history to this section adds that “[subsection (a)] specifies that employees must continue to comply with collective bargaining agreements or employment benefit plans providing greater benefits than the act. Conversely, [subsection (b)] makes clear that rights under the act cannot be taken away to collective bargaining or employer plans.” S. Rep. 103-3 at 38; see also id. at 47 (exNo. 03-4204 21 plaining that under § 2652 nothing in the FMLA “shall diminish an employer’s obligation under a collective bargaining agreement or employment benefit plan to provide greater leave rights nor may the rights provided under this title be diminished by such agreement or plan”). As noted above, Mr. Harrell believes that the Postal Service’s insistence on a detailed return-to-work statement violated the FMLA. He asserts that, although the Postal Service was allowed to have a uniform fitness certification policy under 29 U.S.C. § 2614(a)(4), this provision is limited by the language of 29 U.S.C. § 2652(b) which provides that “[t]he rights established for employees under this Act or any amendment made by this Act shall not be diminished by any collective bargaining agreement or any employment benefit program or plan.” Therefore, as these provisions apply to his case, Mr. Harrell submits that, because Dr. Smith cleared him for work without restrictions, the Postal Service was not authorized to impose a more stringent certification requirement, even if such a requirement was part of the governing collective bargaining agreement. The Postal Service and the Department of Labor urge a different interpretation of these provisions. They maintain that § 2614(a)(4), with its deference to “a valid State or local law or a collective bargaining agreement,” defines the “right” to return to work as guaranteed by the FMLA. The Postal Service goes on to explain that, [b]ecause an employee has no right under the Act to circumvent a collective bargaining provision governing his return to work, applying section 2614 to require additional certification measures does not “diminish” any “right established for employees under th[e] Act,” and therefore does not contravene section 2652. 22 No. 03-4204 Rehearing Pet. at 11. Both parties urge that we need not look beyond the statutory language to resolve the question at hand— whether a CBA can impose a more stringent return-to-work requirement than a simple certification by the employee’s own physician. We do not believe this to be the case. Here, § 2614 provides that an employer may have a certification requirement, but further provides that “nothing in this paragraph shall supersede a valid State or local law or a collective bargaining agreement that governs the return to work of such employees”; § 2652 states that nothing in the Act “shall be construed to diminish the obligation of an employer to comply with any collective bargaining agreement . . . that provides greater family or medical leave rights to employees than the rights established under this Act” and further states that rights provided by the FMLA “shall not be diminished by any collective bargaining agreement or any employment benefit program or plan.” There are two possible ways to reconcile these provisions. The first is the interpretation urged by Mr. Harrell—that a CBA can provide greater, but not fewer, rights to employees. This interpretation, however, renders the last clause of § 2614(a)(4) superfluous, a result that we usually try to avoid. See, e.g., United States v. Alvarenga-Silva, 324 F.3d 884, 887 (7th Cir. 2003) (“Courts should avoid statutory constructions that render another part of the same provision superfluous.”). The second possible interpretation—the one urged by the Postal Service—is to read § 2614(a)(4) as an exception to the general rule set forth in § 2652. Such a reading is consonant with general canons of statutory interpretation, see United States v. Salerno, 108 F.3d 730, 737 (7th Cir. 1997) (describing the “cannon [sic] of statutory interpretation that a more specific statutory provision takes precedence over No. 03-4204 23 a more general provision”); however, Congress’ intent to limit the operation of § 2652 with respect to return-towork provisions could have been made clearer through the use of a cross-reference to § 2614(a)(4). Given the shortcomings with each interpretation, we are not able to conclude that Congress clearly addressed the question at issue through the statutory language. We therefore may turn to the interpretive regulations to resolve the issue. Chevron instructs that we must defer to the reasonable interpretation of an agency tasked with administering the statute. Whether an interpretation is reasonable involves a two-step inquiry. The first step requires that the court identify the agency’s position on the specific issue. The second step requires a determination of whether the agency’s position is a principled one. Chevron, 467 U.S. at 844. Here, Mr. Harrell maintains that the interpretation of § 2614(a)(4) set forth in the Department of Labor’s regulation is no more than a restatement of the language of the statute and, therefore, is not worthy of deference. Although such an argument does find support in recent Supreme Court case law,3 we find it unpersuasive with respect to the regulation at issue. It is true that part of the implementing regulation, 29 C.F.R. § 825.310,4 follows closely the language of the statute; however, the regulation goes beyond the mere recitation of the statutory language and speaks to the issue 3 See Gonzales v. Oregon, 126 S. Ct. 904, 915 (2006) (rejecting the Government’s argument that an interpretive rule was worthy of deference under Auer v. Robbins, 519 U.S. 452 (1997), in part because “the underlying regulation does little more than restate the terms of the statute itself”). 4 The relevant sections of 29 C.F.R. § 825.310 are set forth supra at 13. 24 No. 03-4204 presented in this case. First, the title of the regulation sets forth the question that the regulation purports to answer: “Under what circumstances may an employer require that an employee submit a medical certification that the employee is able (or unable) to return to work (i.e., a ‘fitness-for-duty’ report)?” 29 C.F.R. § 825.310. Subsection (a) then states the general proposition that, as a condition of restoring an employee to his or her position after FMLA leave, “an employer may have a uniformly-applied policy or practice that requires all similarly-situated employees . . . who take leave for such conditions to obtain and present certification from the employee’s health care provider that the employee is able to resume work.” 29 C.F.R. § 825.310(a). Subsection (b) speaks more directly to the situation presented here; it states: (b) If State or local law or the terms of a collective bargaining agreement govern an employee’s return to work, those provisions shall be applied. Similarly, requirements under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) that any return-to-work physical be job-related and consistent with business necessity apply. For example, an attorney could not be required to submit to a medical examination or inquiry just because her leg had been amputated. The essential functions of an attorney’s job do not require use of both legs; therefore such an inquiry would not be job related. An employer may require a ware- house laborer, whose back impairment affects the ability to lift, to be examined by an orthopedist, but may not require this employee to submit to an HIV test where the test is not related to either the essential functions of his/her job or to his/her impairment. 29 C.F.R. § 825.310(b) (emphasis added). Not only does subsection (b) clearly state that a CBA takes precedence over No. 03-4204 25 the statutory requirements, the examples that follow illustrate that the Department of Labor does not believe that return-to-work requirements found in a CBA only can provide employees with greater protections than the statutory language. The last example discussing the warehouse laborer is particularly telling: A CBA that provided only greater rights to employees could not require a warehouse laborer, as a condition of returning to work, to be examined by an orthopedist; if the employee had obtained a return-towork release from his general practitioner, that release, without more, would suffice under the statutory provisions of the FMLA. Thus subsection (b) not only provides for compliance with a CBA, it also indicates that the CBA may impose more stringent return-to-work requirements on the employee than those set forth in the statute.5 Having identified the agency’s answer to the question,6 the 5 Subsection (c) then goes on to describe the statutory protections set forth in the act for returning to work—those protections that are applied in the event subsection (b) is inapplicable. See 29