Family and Medical Leave

FACT OR FICTION: An FMLA-eligible employee can decline FMLA leave

March 12, 2014 | by Eric B. Meyer

That’s right folks. It’s time for another edition of “Fact or Fiction” a/k/a “Quick Answers to Quick Questions” a/k/a QATQQ f/k/a “I don’t feel like writing a long blog post.”

One of your FMLA-eligible employees walks into HR one day and says that she has a serious health condition and would like to take time off to treat her injury. However, the employee, who has paid time off banked away, says that she’d like to dip into her bank of PTO and exhaust that without using any of her 12 weeks of FMLA.

Can your employee affirmatively decline to use FMLA leave, even if the underlying reason for seeking the leave would have invoked FMLA protection?

Requiring a doctor’s note for each FMLA absence may be unlawful

February 25, 2014 | by Eric B. Meyer

Those four-letter federal employment statutes — FMLA and FLSA — can be a real pain in the ass, amirite?

Today’s let’s focus on a major employer pitfall: intermittent leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act.

The FMLA regulations define intermittently leave this way:

FACT OR FICTION: Snow + Office Closed = FMLA Day

February 13, 2014 | by Eric B. Meyer

That’s right folks. It’s time for another edition of “Fact or Fiction” a/k/a “Quick Answers to Quick Questions” a/k/a QATQQ f/k/a “I don’t feel like writing a long blog post.”

One of your employees is currently using FMLA leave. Today, due to the winter storm, you’ve decided to close the office.

Do you still count today’s snow-induced office closure towards the 12 workweeks of FMLA to which your employee is entitled?

New bill in Congress will revamp FMLA to cover smaller employers

February 7, 2014 | by Eric B. Meyer

How about cutting the 50-employee requirement for covered employers in half?

So, if you have 25 or more employees working within 75 miles of one another, they would be eligible to take leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act.

And that’s just part of the Family and Medical Leave Enhancement Act of 2014, which Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY) introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this week.

Husband’s “kill list” is your green light to fire an employee on FMLA

February 4, 2014 | by Eric B. Meyer

Take it from your ol’ buddy Eric.

Let’s say that your employee is on FMLA…

And let’s say that, while your employee is on FMLA, you learn that her husband is involved in a motorcycle gang…

What happens in Vegas, becomes an FMLA claim. Really.

January 29, 2014 | by Eric B. Meyer

Back in 2012, I blogged here about an employee who took her mother to Las Vegas on a vacation. The two ladies spent time playing slots, shopping on the Strip, people-watching, and dining at restaurants. The mother had terminal cancer, but had no specific plans to seek medical treatment in Las Vegas and was never hospitalized or treated by a physician.

When the employee returned to work, she soon became a former employee, immediately terminated for what her employer determined to be unauthorized absences.

The employee then sued for violations of the Family and Medical Leave Act.

The most clicked, hella-best HR-compliance updates from 2013!!!

December 30, 2013 | by Eric B. Meyer

Ah, it was a good year at the ole Handbook.

Total web traffic was up over fifty percent from 2012. And average time per visit was down over 20%, which is fine by me. I pad my important stats, while discouraging loitering.

And we got our first visitor from Uzbekistan. And the fifth most common search phrase that brought visitors to the site was “Kenny Powers.”

New bill in Congress would provide paid family and medical leave

December 16, 2013 | by Eric B. Meyer

A real game changer: Paid family and medical leave.

Details after the jump…

To all the employers too gun-shy to fire an employee on the day she returns from FMLA leave

November 22, 2013 | by Eric B. Meyer

Did I scare you yesterday with my post about the part-time employee denied leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act who may have an FMLA retaliation claim after receiving full-time hours?

Well, your blogtender is here with a double shot of courage. (See what I did there?)

*** blogtender pours himself a double shot of something else ***

FACT OR FICTION: Giving a part-time employee full-time hours may be FMLA retaliation?

November 21, 2013 | by Eric B. Meyer

That’s right folks. It’s time for another edition of “Fact or Fiction” a/k/a “Quick Answers to Quick Questions” a/k/a QATQQ f/k/a “I don’t feel like writing a long blog post.”

Come on, gang! Did you see yesterday’s blog masterpiece? Those .gif’s don’t animate themselves. My little elves — I’m classifying them as FLSA exempt by the way — crank the wheel every time you land on the page. So, cut me some slack; I’m taking it easy today.

But, check this out. We have a part-time employee who claims that her three requests for leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act to care for a sick spouse are denied. Then, less than a month later, her boss gives her full-hours.