Q: Can an employee take FMLA leave due to a cold or the flu?
A: Yes, if it otherwise meets the definition of a “serious health condition.”
This question is confusing to many employers, and even some folks who hold themselves out FMLA experts. The source of this confusion is a misleading passage in the
Is the fifth time the charm? On July 30, 2010, U.S. Senator Richard Durbin introduced the Family and Medical Leave Inclusion Act, which would broaden the Family and Medical Leave Act to permit leave to care for a same-sex spouse, domestic partner, parent-in-law, adult child, sibling, or grandparent who has a serious health condition. S.B. 3680
On the campaign trail, then candidate Barack Obama promised to work aggressively on work-family balance if he was elected president. In doing so, he clearly signaled a movement toward pursuing additional rights for employees to permit them to better balance their workplace duties and their personal and family lives. This “movement,” however, has been stalled
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 food and transport her to doctors’ appointments, which he did without issue for the next four months.
For Joe, when it rains, it pours. Literally. Right into his mother’s basement. Joe was absent for four consecutive days and, in violation of the Hospital’s personnel policies, he failed to call in his absences. Thereafter, he informed the Hospital that he would need additional time off to clean up flooding in his mom’s basement. He claimed that the “flood cleaning days” should be excused because his mother had hepatitis and the stagnant water was a “breeding ground” for the disease. The Hospital disagreed and fired him.
At that moment, Joe’s FMLA claims went down the drain.Continue Reading Cleaning Up Mom’s Flooded Basement Not Protected by FMLA
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
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 top. However, the more I considered the above exchange, the more I wondered whether this scenario raises a common issue for employers as they administer FMLA leave — Do major sporting events, such as the Stanley Cup and ongoing World Cup, invite widespread abuse of FMLA leave?Continue Reading He Shoots . . . and Misses! Does the World Cup Invite FMLA Abuse?
On June 22, 2010, the U.S. Department of Labor issued an Administrator Interpretation (.pdf) to clarify the definition of a “son or daughter” under the FMLA to ensure that an employee who seeks time off work to care for a child receives FMLA leave regardless of the employee’s legal or biological relationship with the child. Although the DOL interpretation arguably does not change existing law, many consider it a huge win for nontraditional families, including families in the lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender (LGBT) community who, the DOL asserts, “often in the past have been denied leave to care for their loved ones.”Continue Reading DOL Permits FMLA Leave for Gay Parents and Others Caring For a Child
Gay and lesbian employees in the Illinois Treasurer’s office who are in a committed relationship will enjoy the same FMLA benefits as married employees under an executive order signed by state treasurer (and U.S. Senate candidate) Alexi Giannoulias Sunday. As a result, these employees will have the same family and medical leave benefits to care for their domestic partner when they suffer from a serious health condition and will be allowed to take time off to have or adopt children.
Continue Reading Illinois State Treasurer Extends FMLA Benefits to Employees with Same-Sex Partners
Have you been concerned that the US Department of Labor in an Obama Administration might reverse many of the “employer-friendly” FMLA regulations that took effect in January 2009? According to the DOL, however, major changes to the regulations is unlikely to happen any time soon.
As first reported by Thompson Publishing, at a DOL
Last fall, Congress passed and the President signed several amendments to the Family and Medical Leave Act, including an expansion of military leave (2010 Defense Department Authorization Bill) and a relaxation of the hours requirement for airline employees (Airline Flight Crew Technical Corrections Act).
Congress’ willingness to amend portions of the FMLA in