MARTA has repeatedly violated employees’ rights to take unpaid leave from work to handle medical or family issues, according to a U.S. Department of Labor investigation.
At issue is MARTA's handling of approvals for absences involving more than 70 workers under the Family and Medical Leave Act. The law provides job protection so that employees can take time off for serious health conditions. It also allows workers to take unpaid time off to bond with a newborn or care for wounded or ill family members.
Two years ago, MARTA ran afoul of labor laws by firing two employees and suspending another in violation of FMLA, according to federal investigators. The transit agency offered to reinstate the fired workers and paid out $32,000 in lost wages.
Details about a follow-up investigation released on Tuesday indicated MARTA again erred in handling FMLA requests and unfairly punished employees who were qualified to take unpaid leave.
As a result, the transit agency must now pay $4,000 in lost wages to a worker who was wrongly suspended for three and a half weeks after missing work because of a serious health condition.
MARTA also must correct its attendance and personnel records and retroactively designate FMLA for more than 70 employees who weren’t given timely notification of their rights and responsibilities under the law.
MARTA agreed to do a better job in the future of promoting FMLA compliance.
“MARTA has acknowledged unintentional record-keeping errors in its administration of the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and has fully cooperated with the investigation conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor into this matter,” said Lyle Harris, a MARTA spokesman.
MARTA has approximately 4,500 full-time employees. And for years, the agency has struggled to manage chronic absenteeism among its workforce. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in September that one in three MARTA employees is absent from work on any given day because of an unplanned event. For bus drivers, maintenance workers or train operators, the absence rate exceeds 50 percent.
The unplanned absences are costing MARTA $13.6 million per year. On Sept. 3, the MARTA board voted to outsource absence management — including the handling of FMLA requests — to a private company.
“Similar to other employers with large workforces, MARTA recognizes the challenge of implementing FMLA policies for employees with legitimate medical and family needs, while at the same time ensuring the agency continues to be a good steward of public tax dollars,” Harris said. “As part of our commitment to continually make improvements, MARTA is hiring a company with specialized expertise in this field to assist the agency in the administration of FMLA and other leave policies.”
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