May 2014

When an employee comes back from Family and Medical Leave Act leave with a fitness-for-duty (FFD) certification from his health care provider in hand, many employers still require the employee to undergo a separate FFD examination by the employer’s own health care provider or employee health office before allowing the employee to return to work.  

Employers (most of them, anyway) understand that they must protect their employees from harassment by their co-workers or supervisors.  A recent case, Freeman v. Dal-Tile Corp., provides a reminder that they must also protect their employees from harassment by outsiders.

The employer, Dal-Tile, did a significant amount of business with another company, VoStone.  The