NJ Fines Hoboken Company For Firing Man Who Cared For Dying Dad

HOBOKEN, NJ — A Hoboken-based bus company must pay a former bus driver $40,000 and arrange anti-discrimination training for its key employees because the company "wrongly fired" the driver after he took New Jersey Family Leave to care for his dying father.

Acting Attorney General Andrew Bruck announced the settlement with Hoboken-based Academy Lines LLC on Friday, after a complaint was filed with the Division on Civil Rights.

The Attorney General's Office said Friday, "The settlement resolves allegations that Academy Lines, which advertises itself as the nation’s largest private transportation company, wrongly fired the worker after he took leave time allowed under the New Jersey Family Leave Act (FLA) to care for his dying father."

The driver went to North Carolina in December 2017 to help his father, who was dying of leukemia, the Attorney General's Office said.

“New Jersey law protects workers’ ability to take time off to care for a seriously ill family member,” said Bruck. “The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored just how important those protections are. We are committed to ensuring that workers don’t lose their jobs in violation of the law just because a family member gets sick.”

“This case illustrates the importance of the protections offered by the FLA when an employee is required to provide a medical certification,” added Rosemary DiSavino, Deputy Director of the Division on Civil Rights.

According to DCR’s investigation, the driver took four separate weeks of “intermittent leave” to care for his father. The December week was the third such leave taken by the driver.

Asked For New Documentation

Intermittent leave is defined in the FLA as leave “taken in separate periods of time,” where each leave period spans at least one work week. The FLA allows employees to take intermittent leave in certain circumstances. In some situations, the employer may require advance notice and a certification from a health care provider to support a leave request.

The driver first took two leave periods before December 2017, and provided a medical certificate from his father’s treating physician, according to the Attorney General's Office.

In December, when the driver asked for a third and fourth week of leave, Academy requested an updated medical certificate.

The employee responded that he was unable to provide an updated medical certificate because the gravity of his father’s deteriorating condition was still being assessed.

The driver told DCR he intended to provide an updated medical certificate once a treatment plan was determined.

After the driver departed for North Carolina to be with his father, he received word that his employment had been terminated for not providing the updated medical certificate, and for failing to provide sufficient advance notice of his leave, the Attorney General's Office said.

The driver filed a formal complaint with DCR in July 2018.

Following an investigation, the Division issued a Finding of Probable Cause in April 2020.

(RELATED: The Attorney General's Office alleged in 2020 that Academy charged NJ Transit for bus trips that never existed. READ MORE: Attorney General Alleges That Hoboken Bus Company Committed Fraud)

Finding Of Probably Cause

DCR found that the original medical certification provided by the driver in 2017 was “sufficient under the FLA’s enforcing regulations.” DCR also found that the driver’s request for a fourth period of intermittent leave to care for his father met the “emergent circumstances” provision of the FLA, and was therefore not subject to the law’s normal advance-notice requirement.

The Finding of Probable Cause also asserted that Academy “failed to articulate a legitimate reason for why it required complainant to immediately produce a new (medical) certification or face termination” and held that there was “reasonable suspicion” to suggest Academy’s unyielding stance was intended to “discourage and impede” the driver from taking additional FLA time.

Under terms of a settlement obtained by DCR on behalf of the fired driver, Academy Lines must arrange for all company human resources personnel, as well as all terminal managers working in and/or supervising employees in New Jersey, to receive anti-discrimination training.

Among other things, the required anti-discrimination training must address overall compliance with the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (LAD) and the FLA, and also focus on such specific issues as required medical certifications under the FLA, and the need to ensure that decisions made in response to requests for FLA leave are consistent with the law. The training also must emphasize the obligation of company managers to report any acts of discrimination they may witness.

In the latest matter, DCR Legal Specialist Carlos Bellido, Investigator Justin Hoffer, and Division of Law Deputy Attorney General Geoffrey Gerstein handled this matter on behalf of the state. DCR Director Rachel Wainer Apter was recused due to her pending nomination to the New Jersey Supreme Court.

RELATED: Hoboken Bus Company Got COVID Relief Funds

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