When someone has used up their FMLA days

deliberator

I have an employee who was off work with a complicated pregnancy and began her FMLA leave in May, 2002 and exhausted her 12 weeks. Last week her husband had an emergency appendectomy, spent a few days in the hospital. She was off work the day of his surgery and when she came in to talk to me about this, I offered her FMLA paperwork. It wasn't until after she left and I was discussing this with my assistant that I realized she did not have any FMLA days to use. We use the 12 month period rolling back. Since her husband's appendectomy, they've also discovered that he has a mass on his kidney and will be having that kidney removed within the next week or so. My question is, once I've offered FMLA do I still have to give it to her even though she has no time left? And if I do, does it have to include time she may be taking off for the second surgery?

njjel

In my opinion you would only need to point out the miscalculation of her time and explain that she will not have any FMLA time coming to her until such and such a time. She may however use accrued sick/vacation/personal time if she has any depending of course on your policy. She may also request a leave of absence, again if you have a policy for that. Good luck to you and her as well!

Theresa Gegen TX

Under the FMLA regs, you have to let the employee know whether they are eligible fairly quickly. If she has already taken the time for the appendectomy before you discovered the error, I would not count that against her. But I would let he know BEFORE she takes more time, that she has none left and that any additional time taken will be counted against her under the company attendance policy.

good luck!

ritamcguire

Carrying this situation one step further, can this employee be allowed to continue on FMLA even though she has used up her 12 weeks? This situation has come up on several occasions in our company. We all know that an employee has a right to 12 weeks of FMLA, but is FMLA limited to a maximum of 12 weeks? Can a company grant an employee more than 12 weeks of FMLA. Obviously if a company had a policy of granting more than 12 weeks of FMLA it would have to treat all employees the same. In the past we have wanted to keep an employee on FMLA past the 12 week period to enable the company to continue the employee's medical coverage. The employee, especially in a long term situation, would most probably not be able to afford COBRA payments while they were out of work. Your thoughts, please!!

Ethel

>Carrying this situation one step further, can this employee be allowed
>to continue on FMLA even though she has used up her 12 weeks?

It appears to me that you could give additional leave, but it would not b FMLA leave and would not have government regulated protections in it. As to continuing their health ins., this would need to be decided by Mgt. (could be some BIG costs because if you do it for this couple, you must do it for others) and then you would need to negotiate with your carrier as to whether they would "honor" any claims.

jimlegal

Agree with Theresa, let the employee know that after reviewing her file it is clear that she has used up all of her FMLA benefits. Any additional time off will need to be handled outside FMLA.