Unless you’ve been securely wedged under a rock over the past 24 hours, you know that the U.S. Supreme Court has declared unconstitutional the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which had established a federal definition of marriage as a legal union only between one man and one woman.
Yesterday, as Justice Anthony Kennedy read
For ages, the employer community has awaited guidance from the EEOC regarding how much additional leave, if any, an employer is required to provide an employee as an ADA reasonable accommodation when an employee is unable to return to work after exhausting FMLA leave. (Depending on what the EEOC says in that eventual guidance, however
When an employer ignores the FMLA regulations as it ponders a termination decision, the consequences can be severe.
A water bottling company recently learned this the hard way.
Peter Lyle was a route driver for “O Premium Waters,” a company that provided bottled water. In December 2009, Peter took FMLA leave, which was approved by
The Department of Labor was serious when it required employers beginning in 2009 to provide individual FMLA notices to employees regarding their eligibility and rights (Notice of Eligibility and Rights & Responsibilities) and whether FMLA applies (Designation Notice).
Apparently, courts think this is important, too. And The Wackenhut Corporation learned this lesson the hard
Q: We have become more aggressive on suspected cases of FMLA abuse and, as a result, we have sent a greater number of employees for second and third opinions after they turn in medical certification. Once we have received the second or third opinion, how long can we rely on it? That is to say
Employers often outsource to third party administrators the task of managing their FMLA processes. Under this model, the TPA handles FMLA requests, paperwork and approvals instead of the employer’s human resources or benefits department. TPAs often utilize nurse case managers to help make leave determinations, and they generally oversee the FMLA administration.
Where a TPA
As always, 2012 was an active year for cases involving the Family and Medical leave Act. Remember the manager who gave his employee the book “No More Hysterectomies” when she asked for leave because she had to undergo a hysterectomy? We covered that one here. Or how about the employee who sought leave to
As a management side attorney, I love when FMLA cases provide real, practical takeaways for employers that help them better administer FMLA leave. Yesterday was one of those days, as a federal court took a plaintiff to task for: 1) failing to provide timely FMLA medical certification; and 2) failing to make a good faith
The FMLA just got a whole lot broader.
In what might be one of the key FMLA decisions of the year, a federal judge has upheld an employee’s right to take FMLA leave to care for her mother during a recreational trip to Las Vegas.
Yep . . . you read it correctly. Employee +
Employers and fellow FMLA nerds, consider this an early holiday present: Courts are increasingly dismissing FMLA claims when they find that the employer has an honest belief that the employee has engaged in FMLA fraud.
This is a longer than usual post, but hang with me, as I share some best practices below.