Ramirez v. Reemployment Assistance Appeals Commission

I would affirm because the employer was accommodative of Ms. Ramirez by: (a) pointing out the availability of leave under FMLA, and (b) offering her reinstatement upon her return. Ms. Ramirez pursued neither available option. When offered reinstatement, she simply said it was “no big deal” to have a job with the employer and, instead, chose to file for unemployment benefits soon thereafter. This was job abandonment. § 443.101(2), Fla. Stat. (2013). Sympathy and a degree of legal leniency are justifiably on the side of the employee who has a family emergency, such as the imminent death of a…