Court Opinion

ID: 9491083
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 14:03:18.478171+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:54:29.985371
License: Public Domain

ROVNER, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I concur in nearly every respect with the majority, but I write separately because I am concerned about the proliferation of policies like that of the defendant, which can be very confusing to workers. The majority praises Mobil’s policy as making “good business sense.” Ante at 299. To be sure, under the law of this circuit, Mobil is entitled to enforce its so-called “no-fault” attendance policy as well as its short term disability policy. Although this probably sounds like legal hairsplitting to nonlawyers, Mobil is entitled to pay workers for days when they are absent from work due to illness, and then terminate them for being excessively absent. It may do so while terming the absences “approved” under the disability policy. Mobil may have had the right to terminate Lindemann for insubordination, but that is not what occurred here. Thus, her alleged comments to her supervisor are not at issue here. I agree with the result the majority reaches, but I believe that whether Mobil’s policy makes “good business sense” is not an issue properly before the Court.