United Airlines, Worker Headed for Leave, Disability Bias Trial

A jury must decide whether United Airlines Inc. interfered with a training scheduler’s right to medical leave for mental health issues and discriminated against her because she was disabled, a Chicago federal judge ruled.

According to the airline, it fired the employee because an investigation showed the psychologist who signed her leave request certification was unlicensed and the worker admitted improperly completing part of it herself, the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois said.

The airline opened an investigation after it became suspicious that she was abusing intermittent leave she’d been granted under the Family and Medical ...