Rehire Eligible for FMLA
psrcello
260 Posts
Here's one for the "no good deed goes unpunished" file. We recently rehired a former employee (he quit under reasonably good circumstances about six months ago, although he did have a fairly serious attendance problem.)
He started missing work his third week back, calling in and simply saying he "wasn't feeling well". He's still in his 90-day probationary period, so we sent him a letter terminating him for unsatisfactory attendance. The day after we sent the letter, he came in with a doctor's note stating only that he'd been under a doctor's care for about a week and a half. Of course, he asked about FMLA (our employees are experts in this law!)
Looking back, he had indeed put in more than 1,250 hours in the past 12 months, and had over one year of total service. Last Friday, he brought in a medical certification which made it clear that the absence meets the criteria for FMLA incapacity plus treatment. He has now missed more days since his rehire than he has worked.
Since new hires don't qualify for FMLA, we have no problems terminating them for attendance in their probationary period. However, since this guy's a rehire and his absence qualifies for FMLA, are we stuck? Or, has somebody found a loophole somewhere to address this type of situation?
He started missing work his third week back, calling in and simply saying he "wasn't feeling well". He's still in his 90-day probationary period, so we sent him a letter terminating him for unsatisfactory attendance. The day after we sent the letter, he came in with a doctor's note stating only that he'd been under a doctor's care for about a week and a half. Of course, he asked about FMLA (our employees are experts in this law!)
Looking back, he had indeed put in more than 1,250 hours in the past 12 months, and had over one year of total service. Last Friday, he brought in a medical certification which made it clear that the absence meets the criteria for FMLA incapacity plus treatment. He has now missed more days since his rehire than he has worked.
Since new hires don't qualify for FMLA, we have no problems terminating them for attendance in their probationary period. However, since this guy's a rehire and his absence qualifies for FMLA, are we stuck? Or, has somebody found a loophole somewhere to address this type of situation?
Comments
I am afraid you are stuck with allowing this person 12 weeks of FMLA.
You will need to make the decision quickly, as you can't retroactively say the time was leave. Until he gets the 2 day notice, his clock won't start.
NrdGrrl