Family and Medical Leave

SHRM hosted a Twitter chat on tricky ADA/FMLA issues. Guess who’s got the full recap?

August 20, 2015 | by Eric B. Meyer

The SHRM blog does, silly. But, I can link to the preview (here) and the recap (here). Definitely check those out. Allen Smith, Manager of workplace law content at SHRM, and a host of others did a great job fielding questions about the ADA and FMLA issues that keep HR professionals up at night.

(Me? I sleep comfortably on a pile of money on top of another pile of money. Thanks for asking.)

P.S. – Special shout out to my little guy Pierce, who turns three today. May next year bring him his first body bopper victory over his older sister.

What the Supreme Court’s marriage-equality decision means for your workplace.

June 29, 2015 | by Eric B. Meyer

Ok, presumably, I’m not the only employment lawyer trying to apply the Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges to the employer-employee relationship. But, I can guarantee that this will be the best post you read about it today.

#noguarantees Continue reading

3d Cir: No serious health condition? No problem. You too may have FMLA rights.

June 23, 2015 | by Eric B. Meyer

Yep, in this precedential opinion, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals created a Family and Medical Leave Act loophole that could protect “the most frivolous leave requests.”

Folks, if your business is covered under the FMLA, and you’ve ever had to deal with a questionable medical certification for an employee’s serious health condition, read on…

The Department of Labor issued new FMLA forms #NudgeTheInternet

May 29, 2015 | by Eric B. Meyer

[music]

Here they are:

WH-380-E Certification of Health Care Provider for Employee’s Serious Health Condition (PDF)

Short of saying F-M-L-A, what must an employee do to get FMLA leave?

May 15, 2015 | by Eric B. Meyer

Y’all enjoy yesterday’s Thursday Giveaway. (Y’all, huh. Look at me. You can take the boy out of Texas, but…). Anyway, if you missed out on getting a copy of that background check PowerPoint and webinar, just ~~send me 1.21 gigawatts, Libyan-grade plutonium, and a selfie stick~~ email me and I’ll still hook you up.

Now, let’s talk about notice under the Family and Medical Leave Act.

Specifically, in those situations in which an employee doesn’t use the letters F-M-L-A, what can that employee say or do to still qualify for leave? Continue reading

5 FMLA facts that may surprise even the most-seasoned HR pros

April 28, 2015 | by Eric B. Meyer

How do I top yesterday’s FMLA cluster?

That’d be like asking a pitcher who just threw a no-hitter to get back out there and pitch another one. Well, gimmee a second to limber up, grab my rosin bag, and, Imma start dealing a few FMLA curveballs.

(See what I did there?) Continue reading

Booby scars, or don’t return from FMLA!

April 27, 2015 | by Eric B. Meyer

With four years of blogging under my belt, I have a pretty good sense of what may audience comes to expect from this labor and employment law blog:

~~typos~~
~~grammar errors~~
snark
“where does Eric find this stuff” posts

For today’s post, I don’t have enough hats to tip to the many readers who emailed me about this hella-crazy FMLA retaliation complaint. Continue reading

For ADA and accommodating employee disabilities, think ‘Burger King’

April 22, 2015 | by Eric B. Meyer

ADA and Burger King?!? Has someone been eating too many Whoppers? No. ~~But I did spend a 20 minute Uber ride yesterday sucking down mustard packets~~.

Actually, the inspiration for this post comes from Seattle Attorney, Michael Harrington, who presented “The Wild, the Weird and the Wonderful FMLA/ADAAA Cases…And the Lessons for Employers!” with me yesterday at the Disability Management Employer Coalition (DMEC) FMLA/ADAAA Employer Compliance Conference.

(If you want a copy of our PPT, please email me. I got you.)

Remember, you guys. The “L” in FMLA stands for Leave.

April 15, 2015 | by Eric B. Meyer

This one goes out to all of you employees who are contemplating a claim against a former employer for violating the Family and Medical Leave Act.

Read this federal court opinion and make a mental note: when you voluntarily work from home, that’s not “leave” under the Family and Medical Leave Act. Yep, when you choose to work from home, and tell your employer that you are working from home ~~that makes Ford Motor Company angry, you wouldn’t like it when Ford gets angry~~, your employer doesn’t need to offer you FMLA, or let you know that you qualify for FMLA. Continue reading

Can you refuse to hire someone for filing an FMLA lawsuit against a prior employer?

April 7, 2015 | by Eric B. Meyer

Oh, that collective sigh ~~of relief~~ of not receiving a daily email update yesterday from The Employer Handbook. (Yes, you can sign up to receive daily email alerts to my blog).

Folks, I’m sorry. Monday, I was a deadbeat; I didn’t pay my MailChimp bill. So, if you rely upon email to receive my daily blog posts, you missed out Monday on what was ~~probably the post of the year~~ definitely the post of the day.

But, today, I’m all paid up and back in MailChimp’s good graces. They even sent me a my own personal mailchimp. I named him Buddy.

Now where did I put my pills?

Ok, moving on… Continue reading