The NAM filed a motion 8/3/05 to join in an industry amicus brief in this case involving an employee’s voluntary release of rights under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). The plaintiff was paid more than $12,000 as part of an enhanced severance benefits package during a reduction in force, in return for a release of all legal claims relating to her employment. She then sued, claiming the release was ineffective for FMLA claims. A 3-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit interpreted a Department of Labor (DOL) regulation as requiring DOL or court approval for all waivers, and the employer sought rehearing on this issue by the full court.The industry brief, filed by the Equal Employment Advisory Council, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the Society for Human Resource Management, argued that employees should be able to voluntarily release claims they may have against their employer under the FMLA without having that release approved by the Department of Labor or a court. The DOL regulation should be declared invalid if it requires supervision of releases. Another court, the 5th Circuit, has ruled that the regulation only applies to releases of future FMLA claims, but the 4th Circuit has created a difficult conflict that threatens to make it virtually impossible for employers to obtain an enforceable general release without litigation, since DOL lacks any vehicle for supervising the hundreds of thousands of releases signed every year.
The NAM needed to file a motion to join the brief because of an unusual Fourth Circuit rule that requires trade associations to disclose their membership lists to the court. To protect the confidentiality of our membership list, we moved to waive the rule and join the brief, but the motion was denied 8/9/05.
The court decided to rehear this case, but affirmed its first ruling on 7/3/07.