Can A Supervisor Or Manager Be Held Liable?

I'm sure you're asking "liable for what?" We'll get to that in just a moment.

Let's discuss personal liability for a moment. Personal liability refers to civil actions brought by an employee claimant (for the purposes of this discussion) in a court against a person (defendant/respondent) in his/her individual capacity. Where a monetary award is provided for the claimant, this monetary award may be satisfied from the personal assets of an individual defendant. Your stuff is now fair game!

While individuals are normally shielded from liability when acting on behalf of a corporation, there are those situations during which the organization cannot protect them. Employment related actions carry with them a "risk" of liability. And yes, this can result in legal action against the employer AND against the individual supervisor or manager. FMLA carries the prospect of personal liability.

In the private sector, courts have consistently found that individual managers/supervisors acting on behalf of the employer may be individually liable for violating an employee's FMLA rights. Bear in mind it may not have been your intent to violate their rights, but you did.

FMLA is a challenging, complex law. Annually it continues to be amended. It's currently under review for amendment yet again.