As I celebrate my third anniversary at Littler, I’d like to invite you to an FMLA party.
Seriously.
A party where we spend seven hours together over two straight days discussing nothing but the F-M-L-A.
Are you excited yet!?! Let me explain more.
FMLA Master Class
For years, many of you have encouraged me
Everyone one of us has been there.
Your employee, Johnny, takes a leave of absence because he stubbed his toe at work, resulting in a lengthy worker’s compensation absence. For one reason or another, Johnny’s one week leave of absence turns into one month, then six months.
One night, right about the time Johnny is
Matt was a correction officer for the Camden County Board of Chosen Freeholders, which as an aside, sounds like something straight out of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
Before I digress further, Matt served as one of the caretakers for his mom, who suffered from dementia and required daily care. Matt sought FMLA leave,
I’ve often wondered — in fact, even discussed with clients — whether an employer could safely approve an employee’s FMLA-related absence and discipline the employee because he failed to timely report the absence.
I’ve theorized that an employer could pull off both because the discipline punished the late call-in, not the FMLA leave.
But I’ve
If you find yourself mired in FMLA abuse, take comfort in this real-life husband and wife leave escapade.
Location: City of Taipei, Taiwan, which maintains a law in which eight days of paid leave is provided to newlyweds. How nice.
Johnny worked for a bank in Taiwan, and was set to wed his lovely
I spend a decent part of my day reviewing FMLA forms, certification and correspondence. Exhilarating, for sure.
When it comes to FMLA notices, do you care hear about one of my big pet peeves? [You: Not really interested, Jeff, but we have the feeling you’re going to tell us anyway.]
It’s an issue that
Can an employer discipline an employee for exceeding the frequency of expected absences indicated on an FMLA medical certification?
I’m actually going to answer this question tomorrow during a free webinar sponsored by the Disability Management Employer Coalition (DMEC), where we will cover key FMLA and ADA cases from 2019. I hope you can attend.
Contrary to popular opinion, the biggest news lately out of the U.S. Department of Labor is not the fact that the agency just this week announced a final rule that would make over one million American workers newly eligible for overtime pay.
Oh, no way!
Why worry about minimum wage and overtime issues when the
Those sneaky little rascals! While the rest of us were enjoying our Labor Day holiday, those crazy kids over at the Department of Labor were still working away. Bless their little hearts! This time, they were busy posting new model FMLA notices and medical certification forms.
Expiration: August 31, 2021.
No more month-to-month extensions
A week doesn’t go by without a client asking me whether they can discipline an employee for exceeding the number of absences allowed on their FMLA medical certification. The fact pattern usually goes something like this:
Johnny is an assemblyman at your 200-employee facility. He assembles johnson rods. He also has a chronic bad