Eliminating a position while the worker is on maternity leave

Is this a lawsuit waiting to happen? A paper in my area is eliminating the position of a pre-press worker who went on maternity leave three weeks ago. I talked with this worker the day she left and she told me how long the leave would be. I have since been told that her position has been eliminated (the pre-press job she was doing is being done by each editor for each section of the paper (Distilling pages and sending them to the pre-press printer)) and they will send her a letter a few weeks before her leave expires. I was told they'll pay her until the leave is up and then stop.
Two questions—Does she have a legal case here? Also, should I call her and let her know now what they intend to do? The day she left, she had no clue this was going to happen.

 

I think the company has to find a position for her somewhere, as part of the Family Medical Leave Act. They can eliminate the position, just not the employee. At least that's my understanding.

 

That's my understanding, too. The job has to be with a reasonable percentage of the employee's former salary, too. So if the women's making 40k a year before maternity leave, they can't offer her a job paying 20k when she comes back.

 

At the very least, tell her, on the sly or on the record.
How would you like it, to return to a job that you thought was still yours and find out that you don't even work there anymore? At least this would be like a bush-league form of severance, allowing her to make calls and search help-wanted ads while caring for her newborn and having some income. Maybe she's have a job, with a better boss and employer, by the time her leave ends.

 

CNHI at its best.

 

Flat out illegal up here.

 

You guessed the company correctly.

 

You stay classy, CNHI!

 

Here's the Family Medical Leave Act website.

As long as she's been an employee for 12 months (doesn't have to be consecutive either) and the company has 50 employees at that site, it's illegal.

 

I'm rooting for the employee here, but I do have a question: What if the employer just waits until she returns, gives her a week or two, and then "downsizes" her onto the street anyway? Not to give the pricks any ideas they haven't already had, but surely she doesn't have guaranteed lifetime employment due to taking maternity leave.

 

Family-owned paper and a former shop of mine did that at least twice - scumbag publisher. Shocking, I'm sure.

 

My understanding is if the position was going to be eliminated even if she was still working there...it's legal.

But still a terrible, terrible thing to do.