• The HR Specialist - Print Newsletter
  • HR Specialist: Employment Law
  • The HR Weekly

FMLA

Understanding how Illinois leave laws overlap with FMLA

10/01/2007

Illinois employers must comply with numerous state leave laws, in addition to the federal FMLA. To track leave usage, employers must understand which state leave laws overlap with the FMLA …

Make sure employees know your policies on moonlighting

10/01/2007

Do your employees ever take time off (whether vacation, personal time or even FMLA leave) to work a second job? You can’t do much about that unless you have a solid policy that prohibits moonlighting. Otherwise, employees on leave are free to spend that time any way they want, even working for someone else or in their own business …

Pregnancy: Run disability leave concurrent with FMLA?

10/01/2007

Q. We provide short-term disability leave to new mothers. Is there any reason we can’t run that leave concurrent with FMLA leave? —S.B., Washington …

Can you force a worker to get FMLA certification?

10/01/2007

Q. We want to run paid time off concurrent with FMLA leave so employees don’t receive more than 12 weeks off (paid and unpaid combined). What if an employee says she’s taking vacation time, but we know it’s for medical tests? Can we force her to get a medical certification so we can subtract the paid vacation time? —L.L., Georgia …

Do holidays count when calculating FMLA or CFRA leave?

10/01/2007

Q. When determining the amount of leave an employee has used, do holidays count against the 12-week entitlement under the FMLA or the California Family Rights Act (CFRA)? …

Employees have no unilateral right to pick shifts under FMLA

10/01/2007

You no doubt know how hard it is to juggle shifts and schedules to accommodate employees who need FMLA time off. You rely on those employees to tell you as far in advance as possible that they need time off, and then rearrange schedules and workloads to be as accommodating as possible. You can and should be a stickler for getting as much notice as possible. Don’t worry: FMLA doesn’t permit an employee to unilaterally demand you immediately assign him or her to a different schedule …

FMLA and PDA don’t preclude parents from travel

10/01/2007

When it comes to special consideration for parents, the FMLA and the Pregnancy Discrimination Act provide limited protection. Employees expecting a child or with child care responsibilities are entitled to unpaid FMLA leave, and pregnant women can’t be discriminated against because of pregnancy. That doesn’t mean, however, that you can’t require reasonable travel and punish those who refuse if they aren’t taking FMLA leave or don’t have any pregnancy complications that prevent travel …

‘Association’ with disabled no automatic assurance of leave

10/01/2007

The ADA makes it illegal to discriminate against employees because of their “association” with disabled people. But what about disciplining an employee for taking time off to care for the disabled person? According to a recent Pennsylvania case, that’s perfectly OK—as long as FMLA leave is not involved …

Getting along without employee on FMLA leave? Go ahead and terminate

10/01/2007

When an employee goes on FMLA leave, someone has to do the work. What if that someone easily assumes the employee’s duties and does a great job? Can you use that fortuitous realization as the basis for firing the leave-taker when he returns? Perhaps, but there’s a risk. The employee may sue, alleging the real reason he was let go was retaliation for taking leave, and not that you figured out the company could get along just fine without him …

Attendance discipline needs care if employee qualifies for FMLA leave

10/01/2007

Q. An employee of ours has attendance problems. Before we could counsel her on the attendance problems, she was approved for intermittent FMLA to care for her elderly mother. While she has taken FMLA days for her mother, she also continues to have attendance problems unrelated to her FMLA leave. Can we proceed with counseling and possible disciplinary actions while she is under FMLA? …