Supervisor's failure to approve leave may trash waste hauling company

A truck driver needed to care for his wife who had stomach cancer. He asked for time off work, but his supervisor dissuaded him from taking the leave. Eventually, the driver contacted HR and was approved for Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) leave. All's well that ends well, right? Maybe not, said a federal court in Chicago.

Wasted opportunities

In 2008, Paul Zedov started working as a truck driver for Mr. Bult's, Inc. (MBI). MBI is in the business of waste hauling and management. By 2015, Zedov was driving the company's Rockdale route, which drivers coveted because it paid comparatively well.

In December 2015, Zedov informed his supervisor, John Holleman, that his wife had been diagnosed with stage four stomach cancer and he would need FMLA leave. The driver claims that between December 2015 to when he was finally granted FMLA leave in April 2016, he made decisions about leave based on the supervisor's discouraging him from taking it.

According to Zedov, he asked Holleman on three occasions for approval to take FMLA leave, and the supervisor consistently discouraged him from doing so. As a result, the driver claims, he was unable to care for his wife and drive her to chemotherapy because he was afraid he would be fired if he took leave. He used personal or sick days, and on other occasions, his wife's son drove her to chemotherapy or she drove herself.

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