After FMLA case lost, conflicting statements sink employee's jobless benefits claim

What happens when an employee doesn’t return from Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) leave and later requests unemployment benefits? The Arkansas Court of Appeals recently addressed the issue.

Facts

Rachel Hourston worked for Goodwill Industries as a part-time customer service clerk from January 2017 to April 2020. In December 2019, she was diagnosed with cancer and began undergoing treatment. She requested and was granted FMLA leave through April 10, 2020, at which time her eligibility would be exhausted.

During the same time, Hourston worked as a self-employed cosmetologist. After her cancer treatment ended in December, she returned to work as a cosmetologist shortly after February 19 and continued in that endeavor through March 23, 2020, when she was forced to stop because of Governor Asa Hutchinson's directive closing all barber shops and cosmetology establishments as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Although there was some dispute by Hourston, the Arkansas Department of Workforce Services (DWS) determined she had been contacted by Goodwill on April 14, 2020. During the conversation, she was told her FMLA leave had expired on April 10 and that the employer couldn’t hold her position open until September 2020 as requested in her leave paperwork. The employer said it could offer an additional 30 days' leave of absence, but she declined and told Cynthia Mahan (an HR business partner for the organization) that she would resign.