FMLA Insights - Guidance & Solutions for Employers

When:  Wednesday, September 29, 2010 (12:00 - 1:15 p.m. CDT) On-line registration: Click here What we will cover:  Given the complexities of the Family and Medical Leave Act, employers often fall prey to dishonest employees who take advantage of their FMLA rights by seeking intermittent leave to avoid discipline for poor attendance or by requesting leave for reasons not covered by the FMLA. In this complimentary webinar, co-hosted by our law firm, Franczek Radelet, and the Society of Human Resource Professionals (Chicago SHRM chapter), I will identify and address a number of difficult issues employers face under the FMLA, including: Identifying and... More

For employers, it pays to listen closely to the reason for which an employee requests time off, since the reason may not always be covered by the FMLA.  Kind of like occasions when the employee tells you he needs time off to clean his mother's flooded basement. Take Joe Lane, a medical technologist for Pontiac Osteopathic Hospital.  Joe, who lived with his mother, sought and was granted FMLA intermittent FMLA leave for six months to care for his mom, who suffered from diabetes, high blood pressure, weight loss and arthritis.  He needed leave from time to time to provide her... More

Managing long-term intermittent leave has long been one of the central problems for employers administering FMLA leave. Particularly problematic is the employee who presents a certification suggesting that he or she will need unscheduled leave with little or no notice to the employer over a period of months or years based upon self-diagnosed, unverifiable symptoms such as pain or fatigue. A recent decision by the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals suggests that, at least in some cases, such a leave request need not be granted because the need for frequent, unscheduled, unpredictable leave over an extended period of time can... More

A couple weeks ago, as I was preparing a witness for his deposition (in a Title VII and FMLA case), it dawned on both of us that his deposition would take place mere hours after the deciding Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.  Upon this realization, his face grew a bit pale, and he began wondering out loud whether he would be in the best shape for a deposition the day after a Chicago Blackhawks victory.  [Insert here: visions of a late night at the local pub.] No worries -- both my client and the Blackhawks came out on... More