Family and Medical Leave

My 5 best posts of 2012, as selected by the world’s best readers*

December 28, 2012 | by Eric B. Meyer

*Do I need a disclaimer? Do I?

What a year for The Employer Handbook in 2012! I’m most pleased that, in our second year of existence, readership more than doubled. Although, sadly, the one 2011 reader I had from Papua New Guinea never returned in 2012. I hope she is ok. Yeah, she’s ok.

So, what did my readers enjoy most in 2012? Well, apparently, y’all like Polka music. Why else would this be the most-clicked item on The Employer Handbook? What a ~~strange~~ cultured bunch!

How Employer Words and Actions Can Make FMLA Apply, Even When It Doesn’t

December 14, 2012 | by Eric B. Meyer

Today we have a guest blogger at The Employer Handbook. It’s one of my fave employment lawyers from Twitter, Chuck Lawson.

Chuck is a member of the Labor and Employment group at Grant Konvalinka & Harrison, P.C., where he specializes in all phases of the employer-employee relationship, including wage and hour, FMLA, ADA, unemployment compensation, and discrimination/harassment law.

After the jump, Chuck is going to school you on some FMLA pitfalls that can trip up even the best employers — and how to avoid them (the pitfalls, that is).

(Want to guest blog at The Employer Handbook? Holla at ya boy).

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Fact or Fiction: Breaks/lunch taken at work may qualify for FMLA

December 11, 2012 | 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.”

The Family and Medical Leave Act permits employees to take leave on an intermittent basis or to work a reduced schedule under certain circumstances, such as caring for a parent with a serious health condition. Intermittent leave can be days, hours, or even minutes off of work. Indeed, when an employee takes FMLA leave on an intermittent or reduced leave schedule basis, the employer must account for the leave using an increment no greater than the shortest period of time that the employer uses to account for use of other forms of leave provided that it is not greater than one hour and provided further that an employee’s FMLA leave entitlement may not be reduced by more than the amount of leave actually taken.

When employees use minutes of intermittent FMLA, it’s generally in the form of early dismissals or late arrivals to work. But what about FMLA leave during breaks and lunches, when the employee never actually leaves the office? Can that time be used for intermittent FMLA leave?

HR testifies that employee firing was FMLA retaliation (you read that right)

December 7, 2012 | by Eric B. Meyer

Better settle the case, right?

Not if you’re Flannery Oaks Guest House. Instead, you move for summary judgment and try to get your former employee’s FMLA retaliation claim dismissed.

Was Andy Reid or Norv Turner calling that play?

How do you think it worked out for ole Flannery Oaks? (Hint: it failed miserably). Find out for sure after the jump…

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Employment Law Blog Carnival: Hollywood Casting Call Edition

November 14, 2012 | by Eric B. Meyer

Welcome everyone to the Employment Law Blog Carnival: Hollywood Casting Call Edition.

[Editor’s Note: The original theme for this post was the “Employment Law Blog Carnival: Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll Edition.” I had this bright idea to begin by cutting and pasting the lyrics to Guns N’ Roses’ “My Michelle,” and, let’s just say I bailed after the first line.]

So that leaves us with Plan B, where, after the jump, I have aggregated some of the best, recent posts from around the employment-law blogosphere and fit them together into a single theme: an open casting call.

Because just the other day, this theme came to me after waking from a Codeine/Claritin-D/Mucinex DM-induced slumber, in which I dreamt about casting a recent post of mine — the one where an employee lost out on an FMLA retaliation claim when her employer fired her after finding Facebook photos of her drinking at a local festival — while on FMLA. My movie will star Kim Kardashian, in her silver screen debut, as the employee. And Alan Thicke, who played Dr. Jason Seaver on “Growing Pains,” could play the company decision-maker. We’ll call it “FML Aye Yai Yai!“

[Editor’s Note: I’m throwing Thicke a bone here. Don’t you think? According to IMDB.com, he just finished production on “Fugget About It“, in which ex New York mobster Jimmy Falcone joins the Witness Protection Program and is relocated, with his family, to Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. Fugget about it, indeed.]

So that’s the idea. More great posts and imaginative casting decisions, after the jump…

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Facebook pics of employee boozing at a festival ruin her FMLA claim

November 8, 2012 | by Eric B. Meyer

About a year-and-a-half into Sara Jaszczyszyn’s employment with Advantage Health Physician Network (“Advantage”), she began taking intermittent FMLA leave for back pain that which she stated left her “completely incapacitated.”

About five weeks into her leave, several of her coworkers saw pictures of her on Facebook consuming adult beverages at a local Polish beer festival. (Although she doesn’t appear to be “completely incapacitated,” she does appear to be having a good ol time, doesn’t she?)

Yadda, yadda, yadda, Advantage fires Ms. Jaszczyszyn and she claims FMLA retaliation.

An HR guide to the workplace implications of Hurricane Sandy

October 29, 2012 | by Eric B. Meyer

I’m punching out this post on Sunday night, from my home in Philadelphia, before the brunt of Hurricane Sandy strikes. Like many of you, I’m locked, stocked, and ready to go, hoping that the impact is far less than is forecasted and the recovery is easy.

Inevitably, however, for you good folks — especially if you have closed shop on Monday, employment issues are sure to arise. To help you out with some of them, read on past the jump…

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Fact or Fiction: FMLA covers a tummy-tuck procedure

October 24, 2012 | 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.”

An employee is eligible for leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act if the employee has “a serious health condition that makes the employee unable to perform the functions of the position of such employee.” An employee has a serious health condition if there is “an illness, injury, impairment or physical or mental condition that involves inpatient care . . . or continuing treatment by a health care provider.”

Treatments for cosmetic procedures are not serious health conditions unless complications develop from the procedure or inpatient hospital care is required. So, an employee who takes leave for a tummy-tuck procedure is not covered under the FMLA.

What happens in Vegas, becomes an FMLA claim

October 23, 2012 | by Eric B. Meyer

Your employee vacations in Las Vegas. She plays the slots, walks the Strip, does some people watching, eats at nice restaurants. And she claims it’s all covered under Family and Medical Leave Act.

And, you know what? She may be right. I’ll tell you why after the jump…

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What one employment-law question would you ask Mitt Romney?

September 25, 2012 | by Eric B. Meyer

We’re just a few months away from the Presidential election. That means that the debates are right around the corner.

Yesterday, started a week-long series of hypothetical debate question for the 2012 candidates for President and Vice President. Click here to see the softball that I tossed President Obama.

Let’s see if I can raise my game for Mitt Romney: