Opinion ID: 1990849
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Application of Section 353 to an Employer's Facially Neutral Termination Policy

Text: [¶ 7] Section 353 of the Act prohibits discrimination against employees in any way for testifying or asserting any claim under the Act. [2] The hearing officer relied on two of our decisions Lindsay, 532 A.2d at 153-54 and Delano v. City of S. Portland, 405 A.2d 222 (Me.1979)in concluding that the application of Shaw's facially neutral termination policy toward Jandreau constituted a violation of section 353. We conclude that these precedents do not support a finding of discrimination in this case. [¶ 8] In Delano, the employee was reclassified to a lower pay scale after refusing to perform part of his duties in his post-injury employment that contained a risk of re-injury. 405 A.2d at 223-24. We determined that there is no per se discrimination when an employer makes a bona fide employment decision according to the employee's post-injury ability to work, even though the employee's inability to work may result from a work-related injury. Id. at 228-29. Because the reclassification [was] based on the lack of bona fide qualification for the higher classified occupation, the employer's reclassification was not discriminatory. Id. at 229. [¶ 9] In contrast with Delano, we found in Lindsay that an employer's facially neutral absenteeism policy was discriminatory and contrary to section 353. Lindsay, 532 A.2d at 153. The employer, Great Northern Paper, had a no fault absenteeism policy whereby employees with a certain number of unexcused absences, regardless of the reason for those absences, were penalized with a two-week suspension without pay. Id. at 152. Due, in part, to Lindsay's previously unexcused absences and, in part, to his work-related absences, Lindsay was suspended without pay for fourteen days. Id. [¶ 10] We held that the suspension without pay was discriminatory pursuant to former 39 M.R.S.A. § 111 (1989), repealed and replaced by P.L.1991, ch. 885, §§ A-7, A-8 (codified at 39-A M.R.S.A. § 353), containing substantially similar language to current section 353. Lindsay, 532 A.2d at 153. Although the absenteeism policy was facially neutral, we found that it was discriminatory as applied to Lindsay because it label[led] his rightful absence because of a work-related injury as an unexcused absence. Id. Unlike Delano, where the employee was prevented by an injury from performing a job, the employee in Lindsay was able to return to his pre-injury employment. Id. at 152. Therefore, the suspension in Lindsay served no other purpose than to penalize the employee for missing work as a result of a work injury. Id. at 153. [¶ 11] Since the hearing officer's decision in this case, we have had another opportunity to consider the application of section 353 to a facially neutral termination or discipline policy in Laskey v. Sappi Fine Paper, 2003 ME 48, 820 A.2d 579. In Laskey, the employee was able to return to his pre-injury job for several years after his injury, the only difference in his work capabilities being: (1) he needed help more frequently than others because of his weight lifting restriction; and (2) his assignments were affected somewhat by his inability to work more than eight hours a day. Id. ¶¶ 2, 4, 820 A.2d at 580. As part of an overall down-sizing effort, the employer instituted a policy that employees with work restrictions, who were not able to perform essential functions of their job, would no longer have their work restrictions accommodated and would be terminated. Id. ¶ 5, 820 A.2d at 580. [¶ 12] We affirmed the hearing officer's finding that the termination was not related substantially and significantly to the employee's exercise of his rights under the Act, but was based on bona fide employment considerations. Id. ¶ 15, 820 A.2d at 582. We rejected the employee's assertion that it is discrimination to terminate an employee on the basis of work restrictions that are the result of a work-related injury, stating: [t]hat interpretation would make any employment action due to a work restriction arising from a work-related injury a prohibited discrimination. [3] Id. ¶ 13, 820 A.2d at 582. [¶ 13] The facts in this case fall squarely within the rationale of Laskey and Delano, and are distinguishable from Lindsay. Unlike the employee in Lindsay, who was physically capable of returning to work after his injury, Jandreau has consistently maintained that she cannot return to her pre-injury employment, nor can she perform the alternative work that the employer offered to her. Given the nature of her injury, the six-month time period mandated in Shaw's absenteeism policy was a reasonable amount of time for Shaw's to make a nondiscriminatory employment decision to terminate Jandreau based on her physical incapacity to return to work. Neither the Act nor our decisions require an employer to keep an employee on the books indefinitely when the employee can no longer meet the requirements of a job. Accordingly, we conclude that the decision to terminate Jandreau was not discrimination prohibited by section 353 because it was based on legitimate employment considerations directly bearing on the employee's physical ability to return to work. [4]