No Bias in Abbott’s Passing Over Laid Off Worker for Rehire

Abbott Labs‘s refusal to rehire a California woman based on medical leave she took while previously employed by the health-care giant didn’t show bias, a state appeals court ruled.

Clare Villacreses tried to link the leave she took from October 2008 – November 2011 to care for her sick child to supervisor Rob Stricker’s decision in 2014 to hire someone else into a diabetic supplies specialist position. But that connection was too speculative to prove bias under California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act, the California Court of Appeal said April 18.

A jury couldn’t reasonably infer discrimination from Abbott’s ...