Situation A
The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provides qualifying employees with up to twelve weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per year (“Leave Benefits”). Also, the FLMA requires that an employee’s group health benefits be maintained during the leave. Additionally, the Act allows for accrued paid time off to be used during the leave, allowing the employee to receive some sort of income.
The FMLA applies to the first situation in the sense that an employee took a job-protected leave to care for a newborn child. Employee A works for a company with over fifty employees and has been granted leave, even though it was sudden. He took an eleven week leave – less than the twelve week maximum - therefore his job was never in jeopardy. The new manager is required to accept Employee A’s return because that was guaranteed when the leave was granted. Under the laws of the FMLA, the manager is unable to terminate the employee while he is on leave because the Act protects his job. Also, the FMLA protects Employee A since he has worked for the company for at least twelve months.
As previously mentioned, the FMLA is an unpaid leave, therefore the manager’s denial of Employee A’s request is valid. When returning from leave, all which is guaranteed is the same job and pay thus, no violations were committed in Situation A. Employee A could have used his accrued paid time off, even for a portion of his leave, in order to receive some income but, the FMLA does not require an employer to pay an employee while on leave.

Situation B
The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA) was passed in response to older workers finding it difficult to retain employment and to find new employment due to the rise in demand for technology and productivity. One major provision of the ADEA is that employers are forbidden from discriminating based on age at any stage of the employment process – from the advertisement of the job to layoffs. The ADEA outlines the guidelines to employers on how they may present early retirement incentive packages to older employees and, if they accept, how to waive ADEA rights. Furthermore, the ADEA highlights to which employers it applies – to companies with twenty or more employees (“Facts About Age Discrimination”).
Situation B falls under the ADEA because a younger employee was favored over an older employee. This Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of age at any and every stage of employment, including promoting. The younger employee was promoted despite his annual performance review being less satisfactory than the older employee’s. The older employee being denied a promotion due to age is a clear violation of the ADEA. Generally, annual performance reviews place all reviewed employees on the same level – if the older employee was performing above average, he should have been offered the promotion before offering it to the younger employee. Not only does the older employee have a more favorable performance review, he has much more experience than the younger employee could possibly have. If Company X had not wanted to promote the older employee, they should have offered him a retirement incentive package before violating the ADEA.

Situation C
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) protects individuals with disabilities in the workplace as it prohibits employers “from discriminating against qualified individuals with disabilities” in all employment stages. A major provision of the ADA is that it defines a qualified applicant with a disability: an individual who can perform the essential functions of a job with or without reasonable accommodations. Lastly, the ADA explains what reasonable accommodation is which includes making existing facilities accessible to people with disabilities (“Facts About the Americans with Disabilities Act”).
The ADA applies to Situation C because the applicant has a disability and was denied employment solely due to his or her disability. Also, the ADA applies to Company X since it employs 75 people. Applicant C was denied employment because of the undue hardship accommodating his or her disability would have on Company X. To make the two elevators more accessible, it would take two days and cost Company X $2,000. This should not constitute “undue hardships” for a company with 75 employees. The decision of whether to hire Applicant C or not should be based on his or her qualifications, not the maintenance of an elevator. Company X should have previously installed wheelchair-accessible elevators. Also, the company could have taken advantage of tax incentives that the IRS offers to companies that accommodate employees with disabilities before violating the ADA.

References
Facts About Age Discrimination. (n.d.). Retrieved September 7, 2015, from http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/age.html Facts About the Americans with Disabilities Act. (n.d.). Retrieved September 15, 2015, from http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/fs-ada.html Leave Benefits. (n.d.). Retrieved September 3, 2015, from http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/benefits-
leave/fmla.htm