This week, Volvo said it would "take the blame if one of its self-driving cars crashes," but it's also taking the blame for dismissing an Army Reservist who deployed twice during the six years she worked for Volvo. This case highlights the tension between the employee's lengthy, but necessary military leaves of absence and the employer's interest in having the employee present in the workplace.
When Volvo hired the reservist in 2006, it knew she was a member of the U.S. Army Reserve. Over the next six years, the reservist deployed twice: once to Iraq for thirteen months and again to Kuwait for sixteen months. When she was stateside, the reservist also took leave for weekend drills, active duty training, and treating the PTSD she developed during her deployments. All-in-all, the reservist took more than 900 days of military leave during her time at Volvo.
Throughout her deployments and other military leave, Volvo allowed the employee to modify her schedule to take leave, attend therapy sessions for her PTSD, and provided her with a quiet place to meditate before work and during breaks. This case originated when Volvo terminated her not for her extensive military leave time, but for arriving to work late multiple times. The reservist claims Volvo enforced its attendance policy more rigorously against her in retaliation for having to take military leave.
It wasn't Volvo's actions, however, that were problematic. During discovery, Volvo turned over emails containing numerous damning statements from the employee's supervisor, the Director of Distributions, and the Director of Labor Relations. These emails made it clear that the employee's supervisors resented the burden her military leave had on the company. They discussed disciplining her, denying her rights, and how her military leave created an "undue hardship" on Volvo.
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals analyzed the employee's claim under both the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 ("USERRA"), and the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA").
