117.7 Federal Family and Medical Leave Act

One difficulty with an interpretation with the Wisconsin Fair Employment Act which holds that an employer who discharges an employee because of absences caused by a disability may satisfy their duty to “reasonably accommodate” the employee by merely allowing the employee to seek to have his absences qualified as covered under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act, is that it makes the substantive meaning of Wisconsin’s “reasonable accommodation” requirement dependent on distinctions and classifications inherent in the federal law which may have no sensible relationship to the intended scope and purpose of the state law. Therefore, it is preferable to interpret the “reasonable accommodation” provision of the Wisconsin Fair Employment Act by reference to Wisconsin statutes and court decisions, rather than to the law of other jurisdictions. Geen v. Stoughton Trailers (LIRC, 09/11/03), aff’d sub nom. Stoughton Trailers, Inc. v. LIRC (Dane Co. Cir. Ct., 05/13/04); aff’d, Stoughton Trailers v. LIRC, 2006 WI App 157, 295 Wis. 2d 750, 721 N.W.2d 102; aff’d, Stoughton Trailers v. LIRC, 2007 WI 105, 303 Wis. 2d 514, 735 N.W.2d 477.117.9