The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed summary judgment in favor of United Airlines, ruling that an employee’s one-day Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) request constituted abuse of the statute since he was using it to continue his three-week vacation, rather than as time off for an anxiety disorder.
Masoud Sharif and his wife were both employed by Dulles Airport in the Washington, D.C., area, where they assembled roughly 20 days of time off from March 16 to April 1, 2014, for a trip to South Africa. However, the time off did not include a two-day period from March 30 to 31. Sharif found someone to cover his March 31 shift in the customer lounge, but he was unable to find anyone to cover his March 30 shift.
