Opinion ID: 757637
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Plaintiffs' View of Excel's Policy

Text: 12 The plaintiffs, former Excel employees who were placed on medical layoff and then terminated 12 months later, take issue with Excel's description of its medical layoff policy and practice. Focusing on the time when an injured employee's recuperation period is over, they assert that, once a doctor (typically the company's doctor, they claim, rather than a personal physician) determines that an employee's restrictions are permanent, that employee is put on medical layoff and eventually, inevitably, terminated--even though he was successfully performing a regular, necessary job at the plant. The plaintiffs claim that it is the responsibility of a company nurse to assess whether a permanently restricted employee can work in his previous job or in any open job in the plant--and that assessment is limited to production jobs. If the nurse concludes that there is no job available, the employee is taken off the light-duty job he is doing successfully. He meets with the nurse, who reviews the restrictions which precluded him from production work in the plant. According to the plaintiffs, job accommodation is not discussed with the employee. An Excel management representative tells the employee that he cannot remain in that job and that he is being placed on medical layoff. At no point during these meetings, claim the plaintiffs, does anyone from management discuss the possibility of individualized job accommodations, flextime, job restructuring or job sharing. Many of the class members asked to remain working in the plant in any available position; however, none of these requests resulted in job reassignment, even though such jobs were available in the plant. 13 The plaintiffs also point out that it was Excel's admitted policy to exclude the nonproduction positions from the plant tour. They contend that Excel tells the employees on medical layoff that the company will automatically bid them on any and every job in the plant; thus assured, they believe that they do not have to place their names on a list to be considered for a nonproduction job opening. They are told to call the human resources office each week; failure to call in a given week, they are warned, will be considered a voluntarily quit which results in the loss of their rights to reinstatement and other benefits. As the plaintiffs point out, however, job openings are posted exclusively inside the plant, where employees on medical layoff are denied access, and are posted for only two days. Therefore it is virtually impossible for them to bid on such jobs, they claim. 14 If the employee on medical layoff is the most senior of any employee to bid on a particular job, the bid is sent to the nursing department where a comparison is made between the employee's medical restrictions and the MMJA form describing the job in question. The nurse determines whether the employee is eligible for the job by comparing with the other candidates that employee's seniority, his ability to perform the work and his physical fitness, as required in Article XIII, § 1(B) of the collective bargaining agreement with the Union. According to the plaintiffs, however, this process is conducted without the employee's knowledge. Excel does not inform an employee that he is the most senior bidder on an open job and never calls in an employee to discuss possible accommodations. The decision that an employee is or is not qualified is made exclusively and unilaterally by Excel. 15 When the plaintiffs called in to check on open positions, they were told that there were no jobs available. Moreover, throughout the medical layoff period until they were terminated 12 months later, they were never considered for nonproduction jobs at Excel. Once they were terminated, at the end of the 12-month period, they were not eligible for any position with Excel pursuant to its policy of refusing to rehire any former employees, regardless of the reason for their termination.