Redricks v. Industrial Vehicles International, Inc.

Summary

The Oklahoma Supreme Court held that an employer violated 85 O.S. Supp. 2000, § 5(B) by terminating an employee during a period of temporary total disability based solely on his failure to call in daily after providing a medical certificate stating that he should remain off work indefinitely. The court concluded that the employer's unwritten daily-call requirement was unduly burdensome under the statute's public policy and reversed and remanded for a determination of damages.

Holdings

1. An employer violates § 5(B) when it discharges an employee during a period of temporary total disability solely because of absence from work, including where the employee fails to make daily calls after the employer has received a medical certificate establishing that the employee will remain off work indefinitely.

Questions Presented

1. Whether an employer violates 85 O.S. Supp. 2000, § 5(B), by terminating an employee during a period of temporary total disability for failing to make daily absence calls after the employee has provided a medical certificate stating that the employee must remain off work indefinitely.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded