Oh, I thought you knew. Ok, fine. I’ll answer my own question. Let’s look at a recent opinion from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. It involves an employee with diabetes who took leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act a few times. In August 2017, he returned a…
Employers that maintain a policy of treating any employee unable to return to work following the expiration of FMLA leave as having voluntarily resigned are begging for trouble. But don’t just take my word for it. According to a recent press release from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the…
So much about what I’m about to tell you is messed up. Last night, I read a Sixth Circuit opinion about a maintenance technician whose job involved servicing and maintaining a fleet of police vehicles, as part of which he agreed to install new dashboard cameras in four police cruisers.…
Recently, a federal judge concluded that an employer accused of contacting a healthcare provider to confirm its suspicions that one of its employees had submitted a false medical certification interfered with the employee’s rights under the Family Medical Leave Act. The plaintiff worked as an attorney for the defendant. According…
Employers cannot interfere with employee rights under the Family and Medical Leave Act. However, the FMLA doesn’t exonerate employee misconduct, including when an employer discovers it during the leave. I’ll give you an example from a federal court decision I read last night. The plaintiff needed knee replacement surgery and informed…
On Monday, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division published new guidance reminding employers that the use of artificial intelligence and other automated technologies to track work hours, optimize employee performance, and administer leaves of absence does not excuse compliance with the laws that the WHD enforces, namely,…
Employees who want to take leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act must give at least 30 days advance notice if possible and practical. If 30 days’ notice is not practicable, for example, when the employee does not know when leave will begin, or if circumstances change or there…
The NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament began yesterday. Last night, I read that the average worker will spend seven hours watching it, with 26 percent of Americans saying they’re prepared to skip work altogether to watch. Cynically, I imagine some of these workers are currently on intermittent FMLA. Two things can…
Suppose one of your employees, a widget maker, takes leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act. As a widget maker, the employee has a monthly quota of 100 widgets. The FMLA does not require an employer to adjust its performance standards for when an employee is on the job.…
Back in the day, the mere promise of Cheerios and chocolate milk was all it took to dupe my two oldest kids (then three and five) to shovel the driveway for a few hours. Come to think of it, I preferred the stick to the carrot. So I probably threatened…