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
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
As a labor and employment attorney, I spend a significant amount of time counseling employers as they prepare to terminate an employee. Often enough, the situation goes something like this:
My operations people want to terminate Fred. He has flown off the handle one too many times, and now, we think we caught him misreporting
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 +
Last week, I responded to an FAQ that often arises for employers when administering the Family and Medical Leave Act: How do employers count unexcused absences when an employee does not return medical certification?
Here’s a real life application of this question: Kimberly Miedema was an employee of Spectrum Catering, and after having claimed
When an employee takes FMLA leave, is an employer obligated to adjust its performance standards so as to avoid penalizing the employee? According to a recent federal court decision, the answer is Yes. And failing to do so sets the employer up for an FMLA interference claim.
The Facts
Take this situation: Jeff was
Remember a few months back when I warned employers to be wary of eliminating the position of an employee who days earlier requested several weeks off for surgery?
Let me take that advice one step further: if an employee informs you that she needs leave to undergo a hysterectomy, don’t tell the employee it’s “not
Q: We have an employee who works four days per week. He regularly calls off work one day every other week due to his chronic bad back. Can we require that he “make up” his day off later in the workweek?
A: The FMLA regulations do not give us any clear guidance as to whether an employer
Q: An employee who recently returned from FMLA leave claims that a portion of his leave of absence should not count against his FMLA entitlement because he responded to a number of work-related e-mails and telephone calls while he was out. Can we still count this time as FMLA leave?
A: I have fielded this
Q: Can an Employer Deny FMLA Leave to An Employee Who Is Not Yet Eligible to Take Leave?
A. It depends, particularly after a federal appellate court handed down a ruling on this very issue last week.
The underlying story is straightforward: On October 5, 2008, Kathryn Pereda began working for Brookdale, which operates senior