Qualified employees may take job-protected leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act based on their Serious Health Condition (SHC). A new decision from the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals makes clear that the employee...more
11/26/2019
/ Appeals ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Job Offers ,
Jury Trial ,
Medical Leave ,
Mental Health ,
Reaffirmation ,
Rescission ,
Resignation ,
Teachers
If asked to describe the essential functions of a given job, most employers would include actually showing up to work as a critical component. In recent years the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has taken the position...more
The EEOC and federal courts have repeatedly said that employees seeking accommodations for disabilities under the ADA do not have to use any “magic words” to trigger the employer’s obligations. A recent decision from the...more
Of all the questions we receive from employers, those involving suspected abuse of intermittent family and medical leave remain among the most frustrating and difficult to address. While only a minority of employees on...more
Under the Family and Medical Leave Act, employers cannot penalize employees for use of FMLA leave. Earlier this month, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals found that an employer’s resetting of a perfect attendance program...more
8/21/2019
/ Appeals ,
Attendance ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Medical Leave ,
Paid Leave ,
Reversal ,
Wage and Hour
In their recent regulatory agendas, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and U.S. Department of Labor indicated upcoming rulemakings that could have significant impacts on employer practices under the Americans with...more
The Department of Labor’s decision to again issue opinion letters in response to employer questions has resulted in some interesting agency positions. Two recent letters address unusual situations not accounted for in federal...more
Most employers know that an employee does not have to ask for Family and Medical Leave by name in order to fall under the FMLA’s protections. At what point, however, does the employee’s disclosure of a medical condition...more
Job-protected leave continues to be the most common accommodation requested by employees under the Americans with Disabilities Act. For employers, the question remains at what point does the amount of work missed end the...more
Last month, the federal Department of Labor issued a series of opinion letters addressing various questions under the Family and Medical Leave Act and Fair Labor Standards Act. One interesting interpretation involved whether...more
Employees seeking accommodations for medical conditions under the Americans with Disabilities Act often request modified work schedules. In some cases, the employee presents medical information indicating an ability only to...more
What should a Human Resources Department do in the following circumstance? An employee requests family and medical leave to care for a child with a serious health condition and is provided DOL forms, including the medical...more
A new unpublished opinion from the Third Circuit Court of Appeals reminds employers that their obligation to provide disabled persons with reasonable accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act does not limit...more
The Family and Medical Leave Act gives eligible employees an entitlement of up to 12 weeks of job-protected leave. The employer cannot require the employee to work during this time, and insistence by the employer that the...more
Last year, the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division announced that it would again begin issuing opinion letters with regard to questions about wage payment practices. Many employers suspected that the agency ceased...more
Last year, we reported a Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals decision establishing a rule that leave of more than a few weeks in duration falls outside employers’ reasonable accommodation obligations under the Americans with...more
4/13/2018
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Denial of Certiorari ,
Failure to Accommodate ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Medical Leave ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
SCOTUS ,
Split of Authority ,
Undue Hardship ,
Wrongful Termination
The Family and Medical Leave Act does not apply to all employers or even all employees within a covered company. For example, if the employee works at a location with fewer than 50 employees within a 75-mile radius, that...more
Some employers use a formal or informal system that allows employees to donate accrued leave time to one another, usually in the context of a serious personal or medical problem. In a recent unpublished decision, the Tenth...more
Under the Family and Medical Leave Act, employees are entitled to take intermittent leave to deal with a serious health condition. The intermittent leave can be in increments as small as one hour. The employer must maintain...more
Here is a nightmare scenario for human resources: The company sends an employee absent from work the required Family and Medical Leave medical certification form via regular mail. The employee fails to return the form within...more
On November 2, Republican congresswomen introduced legislation that would relieve employers from the growing patchwork of state and local paid employee leave laws in return for their guarantee of certain paid benefits. The...more
In its last round of Family and Medical Leave Act rule revisions, the Department of Labor recognized employers’ rights to establish notice procedures for employees who need to miss work due to intermittent and other legally...more
Despite the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s more nuanced position, federal courts have generally rejected attempts by plaintiffs to claim that an indefinite leave of absence is a required reasonable accommodation...more
The Family and Medical Leave Act entitles eligible employees to up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave per year for, among other things, care of a spouse, parent, or child with a serious health condition (SHC). What happens to these...more
Perhaps the most frequent question we receive with regard to employee medical leave involves the following scenario: An employee requests and is provided family and medical leave. Upon the expiration of the 12-week FMLA...more