FMLA

robinhrgirl

I have an employee whose spouse has cancer. He has been treated (Chemo& Surgery)and has been recuperating for several weeks. We agreed that she would be taking intermittent leave as needed because her spouse needed extra care on certain days (couldn't eat without throwing up). She has been back to work full time for a few weeks, but they have found out that he has cancer in another area of his body. He has begun Chemo treatments again which will require her to be gone a day or two at a time. She wants to go off the FMLA and then re-apply if the illness becomes more serious. I assume she wants to save her protection time, but my opinion is that she wouldn't nor shouldn't be allowed to do this as it has been a continous illness. My compassion wants to get in the way of my judgement, so I need some concrete advice.

Thanks

SMace

How would you deal with her absences if they are not covered by FMLA?

robinhrgirl

Our policy only addresses unexcused absences. She could esentially take as many pre-approved days as she needs without pay. She is out of sick days at this point.

mwild31

I guess I would ask this question: If someone was in a car accident and was hospitalized for two weeks, you and they would agree to FMLA. Now, once the employee returns to work full-time, the FMLA would end. Let's say, that three weeks after they return to work full-time, this same employee gets into another car accident & is hospitalized for another two weeks. Even though they are the same, they are different in that the first one ended with the employee returning to work full-time & the qualifying reason for the FMLA was no more - so it stopped. The FMLA clock started ticking again once the new qualifying reason occured (minus the two weeks).

It sounds as though your employee returned to work full time - so FMLA ends & now she has received the bad news that her husband is once again sick with cancer - in another area of his body - and she may have to take more time off once his next round of treatment begins. Concretely, I don't think you can have her on an endless FMLA cycle because the original request for FMLA is over & now this sounds like a new request.

LindaS

I have to disagree with Mwild. From the information provided, she requested intermittent leave to care for her husband who has a continuing illness. He has not been "cured" of the illness but has reached a point that he doesn't need continued care. Unfortunately he will be receiving ADDITIONAL treatment for the same illness so I would NOT grant her the option of "going off" FMLA. What I would recommend, however, is that once she reaches her limit (if she does) reassess the situation at that point to determine what, if any, additional accomodations you could make.

mwild31

I guess I'm responding to:

"We agreed that she would be taking intermittent leave as needed because her spouse needed extra care on certain days (couldn't eat without throwing up). She has been back to work full time for a few weeks, but they have found out that he has cancer in another area of his body."

"She has been back to work full time for a few weeks" this suggests to me that the qualifying reason for the leave was over as she returned to full duties and no longer required intermittent leave. I have a situation here with an employee who has terminal cancer - that's his prognosis from multiple doctors - he is on intermittent leave and his illness is ongoing - there's no point in which he stops treatment or is able to work full-time. I don't think you can keep someone on an ongoing FMLA clock, especially when the need for her to be present ended & she was able to return to work full-time.

LindaS

Once the FMLA year starts, whatever you have deemed that to be, it starts. You are only counting the time an employees missed due to an FMLA reason so I don't see how someone can "go off" FMLA once it has been approved. If the reason for the FMLA has ended, and the person hasn't used up all their allotted time for the year, and they need some additional time, that "clock" is still going as far as their year is concerned. Their year doesn't start over again.

For example, say a person needs the month of March off for an FMLA reason. Their FMLA clock started as soon as their first day was missed. They return to work in April and still have 8 weeks to use from April through the following February. In March their year starts anew.

mwild31

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 10-03-03 AT 04:25PM (CST)[/font][p]Hi Linda - we're saying the same thing - just differently. Of course the start of FMLA begins the count down clock - just as I referenced in my post (minus 2 weeks) and it thereby, in my example, reduces the alloted 12 weeks to 10. My post was also in response to this:

"She wants to go off the FMLA and then re-apply if the illness becomes more serious. I assume she wants to save her protection time, but my opinion is that she wouldn't nor shouldn't be allowed to do this as it has been a continous illness. My compassion wants to get in the way of my judgement, so I need some concrete advice."

She's off FMLA once she returns to work full-time and is no longer in need of the intermittent leave - and she should be able to "re-apply" for the same benefit, minus the time she has already taken, once she needs it again.

robinhrgirl

I wasn't clear enough on the course of his illness. The employee's spouse was found to have cancer, she knew immediately that she would need to be off for his surgery, some recoevery time and some intermittent leave for follow-up appointments, etc. During the spouse's recovery, he was unable to keep food down. While trying to make a determination as to what was causing this, he was found to have cancer in yet another part of his body.

mwild31

Thank you for clearing it up x:-)

robinhrgirl

Thanks-Linda!

I may not have articulated it as well, but that is exactly how I assessed it.
As I replied to Mwild, our attendance policy doesn't address any absences other than those considered unexcused. I feel confident that our district would make any accomodations that we could once her FMLA runs out.