Opinion ID: 1444019
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: PFLA Eligibility

Text: ¶ 12. Plaintiff began working as Business Manager/Personnel Officer at the department on July 21, 1997. Her leave began on June 3, 1998. She was terminated on July 31, 1998. The trial court found that plaintiff's one-year qualifying period for PFLA eligibility was not met because one year had not elapsed between July 21, 1997 and the beginning of the leave on June 3, 1998. ¶ 13. Plaintiff makes two independent arguments that could support her claim to PFLA coverage at the time she was terminated, one based on an interpretation of the statute and one based on an estoppel theory. First, with respect to the statute, plaintiff contends that the question of eligibility does not hinge upon her employment status as of June 3, 1998 (the day her parental leave commenced) but upon her employment status on July 31, 1998 (the day she was terminated). She argues that where an employer has allowed an employee to take parental leave even when the employee has not technically qualified for PFLA leave (under the employer's more generous leave policies), the statute should be construed to allow her to qualify as an employee under the PFLA definition partway into her leave period. She further contends that she satisfied the PFLA definition of employee no later than July 21, 1998, one year from the date on which she started working at the department. ¶ 14. We agree with plaintiff in principle that the clock did not stop running for purposes of qualifying for the PFLA on the date that she commenced her leave. Because the PFLA is a remedial statute, we construe it liberally to accomplish the Legislature's remedial intent. Town of Killington v. State, 172 Vt. 182, 191, 776 A.2d 395, 402 (2001). The statute does not explicitly state when eligibility for PFLA leave is determined, so we are limited to construing the PFLA's definition of employee: a person who, in consideration of direct or indirect gain or profit, has been continuously employed by the same employer for a period of one year for an average of at least 30 hours per week. 21 V.S.A. § 471(2). Although the statute is silent on the question of whether time spent on accrued sick leave or annual leave counts in calculating the thirty hours of work per week average, the only sensible construction is that it does. Otherwise, an employee who worked thirty hours a week for fifty one weeks and then took accrued vacation or sick leave in the fifty-second week would not qualify for PFLA protection in her fifty-third week, even though she had been on the payroll for the one year minimum established by the statute. Given this construction, it would be arbitrary to hold, in a case such as plaintiff's where several weeks of accrued leave balances are used at the beginning of a period of parental leave, that the hours of accrued leave are not counted towards time worked for purposes of PFLA eligibility. As long as plaintiff was using accrued leave balances that she had earned, the clock was still running towards the fifty-two weeks of continuous employment required for PFLA eligibility, just as she was continuing to accrue additional leave balances. Once she exhausted her leave balances, however, time spent on unpaid leave would not count towards the thirty hours per week required for PFLA purposes, as long as the State's personnel policy does not permit the accrual of seniority and other benefits when an employee is on unpaid leave. See Heibler v. Dep't of Workforce Dev., 2002 WI App 21, ¶¶ 9-13, 250 Wis.2d 152, 639 N.W.2d 776, 780-81 (2001) (determining whether an employee could accrue salary, seniority, and benefits that normally would have accrued during her leave under the Wisconsin Family and Medical Leave Act in accordance with governing provisions of collective bargaining agreement and state administrative regulations). Although the trial court erred in its narrow construction of the statute, we cannot tell on the present record when plaintiff's leave balances were exhausted and remand this issue for further proceedings. ¶ 15. Plaintiff's second claim is that the State should be estopped from denying coverage under the PFLA because it specifically granted her the leave. As we understand plaintiff's argument, she claims detrimental reliance upon the State's oral promises as well as upon two documents, one a personnel action and one a letter from Orr indicating that plaintiff was entitled to leave under the PFLA. Although we emphasize that the significance of these documents is unclear from this record and hotly disputed by the parties, individually or together the documents may be sufficient to estop the State from denying plaintiff eligibility for PFLA leave. See Duty v. Norton-Alcoa Proppants, 293 F.3d 481, 493-94 (8th Cir.2002) (recognizing a district court's ability to equitably estop an employer from contesting an employee's eligibility to assert a claim under the federal FMLA when a letter from the employer to the employee had stated that the employee's entire 34-week leave qualified under the FMLA and the employee relied on the specified leave time to his detriment); Woodford v. Cmty. Action of Greene County, Inc., 268 F.3d 51, 57 (2d Cir.2001) (observing that the doctrine of equitable estoppel itself may apply where an employer who has initially provided notice of eligibility for [FMLA] leave later seeks to challenge that eligibility). [4] ¶ 16. The first document that plaintiff claims to have relied upon is a personnel action. The State has admitted that on or about August 1, 1997, a personnel document was generated with regard to plaintiff that included the phrase ADJUSTED HIRE DATE FOR LEAVE & RIF IS 05/02/87. The document refers to plaintiff's original hire date with the State and her years of service in the Agency of Transportation. Her service with the State was briefly interrupted before she went to work at the Department of Sheriffs and State's Attorneys. In attempting to explain the meaning of this document, the State cites a contract provision from the agreement between the State and the Vermont State Employees' Association that purports to govern reemployment situations such as plaintiff's and provides that after successful completion of probation the employee shall have the length of continuous previous ... service re-credited for the purpose of subsequent leave accrual and RIF [reduction in force] rights. The State argues that this provision applies only to accrual rates and that plaintiff should not have construed it to provide her with PFLA rights. Plaintiff asserts, however, that she had become pregnant only after learning of, and in reliance on, [the State's] grant of an `adjusted hire date' of 5/2/87 for me. We also note that plaintiff was an exempt employee, not a classified employee, and the extent to which this personnel document affected her employment was not adequately explained by the document, the affidavit in support of summary judgment from Tom Ball of the Department of Personnel, or counsel at oral argument. ¶ 17. The second document that plaintiff puts forward as the basis for estoppel is the State's letter, signed by Robin Orr and dated June 9, 1998, representing to plaintiff that the leave she was taking had been approved as PFLA leave. Orr's letter to plaintiff includes the following sentence: With your leave commencing on June 3, 1998 the Parental and Family Leave Act (PFLA) entitles you to be out of the office until August 26, 1998. Plaintiff started her leave on June 3, 1998, six days before receiving this letter, but she alleges that the letter reflected prior verbal authorization for PFLA leave. The State asserts that there could be no detrimental reliance on this letter because plaintiff would have taken the leave time following the birth of her son regardless of whether she believed she qualified for PFLA leave. While it is true that plaintiff would have been compelled to take some time off work to deliver her baby, plaintiff's assertion of reliance relates specifically to the protections afforded her by the PFLA, which, as we hold supra, at ¶¶ 7-10, include the right not to be fired for reasons related to parental leave of a certain length of time. ¶ 18. A party invoking equitable estoppel has the burden of establishing the following elements: (1) the party to be estopped must know the facts; (2) the party being estopped must intend that his conduct shall be acted upon or the acts must be such that the party asserting the estoppel has a right to believe it is so intended; (3) the party asserting estoppel must be ignorant of the true facts; and (4) the party asserting estoppel must rely on the conduct of the party to be estopped to his detriment. Wesco, Inc. v. City of Montpelier, 169 Vt. 520, 524, 739 A.2d 1241, 1244-45 (1999). ¶ 19. We find that plaintiff's pleadings allege each of these elements of estoppel, but virtually all of the facts surrounding the claim, including the import of the personnel document and the degree of plaintiff's reliance, are in dispute and cannot be resolved on this record. Further proceedings are necessary to determine whether plaintiff has met her burden of proof. Because we cannot resolve the eligibility question, we turn to the other grounds on which plaintiff's claim was dismissed by the trial court in the event she is found eligible on remand.