Termination or FMLA

njjel

Friday the 13th (of course) we held a meeting with an ee who has been performing poorly and who has been written up several times for failure to do her job properly. We had the local union rep sit in on the meeting. The union rep was in agreement that she should be terminated however she asked if we would give her the opportunity to resign. We said we would and the union rep had a private conversation with the ee. The rep told us the ee wanted to think over if she wanted to resign or not. Then yesterday we received a doctor's note advising us that she would be unable to return to work for a month as she was ill! The union rep has advised us that she feels the ee just wants to use up her accrued time before we terminate her or she resigns. I believe we could ask her to go our our doctor for a second opinion before we approve her FMLA leave. What do you all say?

Geno

njjel,

I think that you should do exactly whatever it is that you were intending to do right before the sudden FMLA-qualifying illness became part of the equation. If you believe that the facts surrounding your decision to terminate are in your favor, then (for a variety of reasons) terminate and do not let this "FMLA threat" influence your decision.

Geno

LindaS

I agree. If you had enough documentation that warranted her termination of employment, the fact that she is now attempting to use FMLA should not influence your decision. If you were going to terminate based on performance, you still can.

The only caveat to this would be if her "illness" caused her poor performance and at that point you would need to look at whether there is an ADA issue.

Paul in Cannon Beach

Make that three in agreement, especially as the union rep seemed to recognize the validity of the termination.

Keep us posted, OK Nijel?