Disability not approved. Employer's options???

KP68

Here's the scenario:
An employee applies for short term disability, is out on for medical reasons for 2-3 weeks. The disability claim comes back from the insurance company denied (as a qualified disability) and the time is unpaid. Meanwhile, the employee returns to work. The employee never submits any additional information to the insurance company for approval and just goes unpaid for the duration of the leave. There is no information supporting a disability, so in our eyes, the employee was able to work. But we have no idea what this employee was doing during this time - meaning why he/she was NOT at work, if he/she isn't disabled. Medical information was submitted, a vague note from the doctor was submitted, so we do have some documentation. And let's assume FMLA does not apply in this case.

Question: can we discipline or terminate due to it being 'unexcused absences', or 'unauthorized leave of absence'?? What are our rights as an employer in these situations? How can we handle this without being accused of retaliating or discriminating?

Thanks.

Don D

If your inquiries and knowledge convince you that FMLA is not applicable and the ee has submitted nothing sufficient to support that there is a disability issue, I think you have an obligation to fall back on your normal disciplinary policies. Seems you have no reason not to and every reason TO. You might approach it, though, from the angle of advising him that unless he can submit to you information that will support his case otherwise, you are applying the company's regular policies. That way you've given him ample opportunity and a final notice that the onus is on him to produce. Do it in writing though. Write the letter as if you are writing it to the other people you assume will read it later. If the application of the policy results in termination, I still feel you have done all you can be expected to do to resolve the period of absence.

Pork

KP 68, Question I have is: "how does an employee apply for short term disability with out your organization being involved"? If you have a loop hole like this, I recommend you close the loop hole and make every application for disability come through the HR. It appears that while you state "in this case FMLA does not apply", it really does apply until "you say it falls outside of FMLA". That way you are in control, otherwise, you might miss a real FMLA case. Our two week waiting period helps us to get in control when an employee from a remote site is in the hospital. Last week I got a call from one of our employees in the hospital. He had been there for three days and we did not know; his family was not concerned about his job, they were worried about his life. He had a hole in his lung which calapsed. He wanted to claim W/C! No way, but I was concerned for the FMLA situation and short term disability. If he is not back by Friday of this week then next week and future weeks will be under short term disability and FMLA benefits.