FMLA, jail time, and alcohol?
kmaries
29 Posts
This came up today and I am looking for advice on how to proceed because I know this one is going to get sticky.
We have an employee that her supervisor suspected that she had alcohol on her breath Tuesday. They didn't do any testing, but because she was not able to perform her job they drove her home and also gave her Wednesday off so that she can help herself because she has had a lot of personal issues.
Her supervisor was concerned for her this morning and thought that he would just give her a call and see how she is feeling. The employee was not home, but her boyfriend did tell the supervisor that the employee drank all night and had gone to jail for hitting a police officer. It has been assumed that she did go to detox. At this point, we are unsure whether she will be out of jail/detox tonight and be able to return tomorrow or not. The supervisor has asked me to send paperwork to the employee for a leave of absence for either alcoholism or depression, which I did.
Inside information (small town) has indicated that her regular doctor has already committed himself to filling out the paperwork for the employee so that her position is protected. If this employee decides to fill the paperwork out, how far back do I need to go for this leave? For example, if the physician says that this goes back months does the time spent from Thursday on, in the detox center of the jail count towards her FMLA allotment (if he certifies that she is an alcoholic)?
My issues I guess are that if she is in detox wouldn't she be in the care of a physician? So essentially, that time would be counted towards her FMLA time. However, if in regular jail though, do we say no because she wasn't receiving any care for the alcoholism until after she went to jail? This is under the assumption that she even gets help.
Help!
We have an employee that her supervisor suspected that she had alcohol on her breath Tuesday. They didn't do any testing, but because she was not able to perform her job they drove her home and also gave her Wednesday off so that she can help herself because she has had a lot of personal issues.
Her supervisor was concerned for her this morning and thought that he would just give her a call and see how she is feeling. The employee was not home, but her boyfriend did tell the supervisor that the employee drank all night and had gone to jail for hitting a police officer. It has been assumed that she did go to detox. At this point, we are unsure whether she will be out of jail/detox tonight and be able to return tomorrow or not. The supervisor has asked me to send paperwork to the employee for a leave of absence for either alcoholism or depression, which I did.
Inside information (small town) has indicated that her regular doctor has already committed himself to filling out the paperwork for the employee so that her position is protected. If this employee decides to fill the paperwork out, how far back do I need to go for this leave? For example, if the physician says that this goes back months does the time spent from Thursday on, in the detox center of the jail count towards her FMLA allotment (if he certifies that she is an alcoholic)?
My issues I guess are that if she is in detox wouldn't she be in the care of a physician? So essentially, that time would be counted towards her FMLA time. However, if in regular jail though, do we say no because she wasn't receiving any care for the alcoholism until after she went to jail? This is under the assumption that she even gets help.
Help!
Comments
Regarding your FMLA question - substance abuse may be deemed a serious health condition if the conditions are met (they probably will be) so you have to allow an employee time off for treatment of the illness but absences from work due to the use of the substance are NOT covered under FMLA. So the answer to your question is NO you do not have to count her time off due to incarceration as FMLA covered.
Regarding how far back you must go I would say that you do NOT have to go back months to count her absences as FMLA unless you had reasonable knowledge that an FMLA condition existed but did not send the required paperwork. For example, if she missed work and call in "sick" or "personal problems" then I would NOT go back and count those as FMLA.
One other thing to note and I'm not sure how this applies to your company or your situation . the FMLA regulations do NOT exempt an employee from following the normal procedures for notifing an employer that an employee is going to be off. You said that the supervisor called the employee this morning to see how she was feeling so I'm assuming the employee did not call in herself. Just a side note.
I hope this helps!