Can we do this?

sssteel

We have an employee that broke his hand (not on work time) about a month ago. The doctor gave him restrictions that say he can not use his left at work. He has not requested and we have not suggested FLMA to him, because we have still been giving him well over 40 hours of work, while still abiding by the doctors restrictions. Yesterday he was suppose to go to a doctors appointment to remove a pin from his hand and get his restrictions lifted. He did not go to this appointment and this leads to my question.

We are running out of restricted work that we can give him so I am wondering if we can now put him on FLMA and give him time off of work to heal? We would pay off any vacation that he has accumulated while he is away. I know it is an injury and a situation that would call for FMLA but since we haven’t required it of him for the past month will we run into problems? Any feedback on this situation would be helpful. Thank you all so much.

SMace

We do not have restricted duty for non-work related injuries. They can only work if they are released to FULL duty. We do have restricted duty for WC. The policy you have is not a good policy and can cause you future issues with ADA.

I'm assuming you do not have Short Term Disability. STD really helps in this situation.

Anyway, you are asking what to do now. I would change your policy effective today and tell him you do not have work available. If he wants to exercise his FMLA rights, he can and I woiuld assume it would allow him to stay on on as and ee while he gets better.

If you don't have STD and you do this, I bet he will miraculously heal and be back to full duty ASAP.

davids

It sounds like he has been working full-time up to now, so FMLA was not needed. Now that you no longer have work for him within his restrictions, I would invoke FMLA. If you have some work, but not full-time, it would be intermittent FMLA. If you have no work for him, then he is just out on FMLA.