Retroactive FMLA
Paul in Cannon Beach
4,703 Posts
In mid September, an employee had surgery and went on medical leave. I failed to give the employee our FMLA request form at that time. The employee works in another department here and her manager brought it too my attention that the employee is still recovering from surgery and has not worked.
Now I want to give the employee her FMLA request form and make her FMLA leave retroactive to mid September. I had heard that this was OK but recently someone I talked to said that the idea of retroactive FMLA is a bit shaky and he didn't recommend it.
Worst case scenario might be that I start counting the leave now which would mean that the employee is still eligible for her 12 weeks.
Any advice?
Paul
Now I want to give the employee her FMLA request form and make her FMLA leave retroactive to mid September. I had heard that this was OK but recently someone I talked to said that the idea of retroactive FMLA is a bit shaky and he didn't recommend it.
Worst case scenario might be that I start counting the leave now which would mean that the employee is still eligible for her 12 weeks.
Any advice?
Paul
Comments
[url]http://www.HRhero.com/headlines/030901/fmla.shtml[/url]
The information there is helpful to anyone else wondering about this. Judging from what I learned there, I don't think I can designate this leave retroactively and must bite the bullet.
Live and learn.
Paul
Your example seems similar to the recent Ragsdale v. Wolverine case in which the US Supreme Court ruled that the employer who fails to provide timely notice to the employee is not automatically obligated to provide any addt'l leave once the error is discovered.... However, the Court said that these types of cases s/b looked at on an individualized basis. The BIG question is whether the employee actually suffered any prejudice due to the employer's failure to designate the leave as FMLA (e.g. denied intermittent leave) . If not, and it doesn't sound as though this is the case, I'd be inclined to designate that the employees current absence s/b designated as FMLA and begin to start counting it now. If there's a desire to count retroactively, I'd recommend obtaining some legal advice cuz this is a potentially big issue. Good luck and hopefully your supervisor's will help keep you informed when this type of thing occurs. More mgr'l training appears necessary.