Employer Seeks Review of Employee's Waiver of FMLA rights
As I wrote here, when an injured worker agrees to a "washout" of his rights to past and future benefits for an on-the-job accident pursuant to§440.20(11), Fla. Stat., employers and carriers in Florida also routinely require the execution of a "general release" in which the injured worker waives his right to any other employment-related claims as well. Are such "general releases" really effective to waive all such claims? In Taylor v Progress Energy Inc., the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals held that a release in which the employee purported to waive his FMLA rights as part of a severance agreement was ineffective because it was obtained without either court approval or the approval of the Department of Labor.
Progress Energy has now filed this petition for writ of certiorari in the Supreme Court of the United States seeking review of the Fourth Circuit's decision. The petition alleges that the Fourth Circuit's decision is in conflict with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals' decision in Faris v. Williams WPC-I, Inc. For more on the petition and this issue, see this post at SCOTUSblog.
