Catherwood LibraryILR School

In what may be the largest verdict ever in a lawsuit brought under the Family Medical Leave Act, Advocate Health and Hospitals Corporation was ordered to pay $11.65 million in damages to a former employee at Christ Hospital and Medical Center who was fired for exercising his right to take time off to care for his ill parents. Recognized in 1999 as the most outstanding of Christ Hospital?s 5,000 employees, Chris Schultz worked at the hospital for twenty-six years and was the first worker from the building operations department to win employee of the year. Shortly after Mr. Schultz began using his family medical leave in 1999 to take care of his parents---who suffer from heart problems, diabetes and Alzheimer?s---he was subjected to arbitrary monthly workloads too heavy for him to fulfill and was then fired for alleged poor performance by a supervisor who often told workers he could fire them at will.