EE's appts. interfering w/work

Paige

We have an employee who was in an auto accident in February. Per her lawyer's suggestion, she is seeing a chiropractor. She was off work completely for a couple of weeks, then released to work, but continued her appointments.

Initially, she was seeing the chiropractor on a daily basis. He normal work schedule is 10:30-7 and her chiropractic appointments were for 10:30. We asked her to reschedule, she said that was the earliest they could get her in.

Now, in addition to her appts. not starting until 10:30, she is not coming in to work until 12:30. What can we do? I know we can ask for documentation from the chiropractor confirming her absence. Can we change her schedule--say give her a split shift from 7-10 and then 1-7? What if she says she can't come in from 7-10?

Thanks, in advance, for any help you can offer.

marc

Sounds like this EE needs to cooperate more than you are getting. I can understand an occasional late appointment but I would bet that earlier appointments are available, if not from this chiropractor, then another could probably accomodate. Set some firm guidelines about meeting work obligations and putting in a full day. If you can accomodate the split shift, understand that you are setting precedent and may need to do this with all similarly situated EEs. That may or may not be a big deal to your work flow.

You may have some ADA or FML intermittent leave issues that could come into play, but you can get some guidance from the care provider with some of the standard paperwork that probably should have already been provided. If not, get the FML medical certification forms to the chiropractor and get a job description, along with the hours, to the chiropractor and see if there are medical issues with performing any of the tasks, including the start and stop time of the expected shift.

Balloonman

Yes all of what marc said. But before you do anything call the chiropractor and see what the hours are. Then ask about availablity with scheduling ahead. If he is open earlier, and has appointments available, then I would sit the employee down, say sorry but schedule the appointments around work hours or hold them to attendance policy. I would make sure they understood that I knew that they lied.
If in fact the office does not open till 10:30 /:)
then you have to decide how hard you want to push it. I would require verification of arrival and departure times, and if they show up an hour late, again it is an attendance issue.

My $0.02 worth!
DJ The Balloonman

Don D

Rule number one with intermittent leave is that it must be agreed to by the employer. You need not be held hostage to the employee's notion of intermittent. Tell her the Chiro's office also has coffee and she can drink it there as well as at home. He probably even tunes to Good Morning America.






Note: The preceeding is my personal opinion and has no value beyond that. Although it may be 'sorta offensive' or 'indeed offensive' to someone out there, it is offered without regard to that possibility. Should you find yourself alarmed by my post, you may privately mail me to protest or you may alert the principal's office. x:-)

Rockie

I agree with all. I can't imagine any health care provider not having appointments available until 10:30 - she should be able to get an 8:30 or 9:00 appointment easily if scheduled ahead. Likely what happened is that 10:30 is what her first appointment's time was and she liked the time frame to get up later and drag into work later. Good idea to call the doctor's office and get their hours before talking with the employee.

Whatever

She is seeing a chiropractor at her attorney's suggestion. SURPRISE!!! /:) I agree with above. However, you might also want to get a second medical opinion.

Paige

In terms of her getting to the appointment earlier, within the realm of FMLA--how can I "force" her to make her appointments earlier? And if she doesn't, want kind of recourse can be taken?

I called the chiro's office a couple of weeks ago to ask about scheduling, the person who answered the phone said she would have to call me back. She never did, but she did tell the employee I called, who then became a little ticked that we were "meddling."

marc

She is forcing the "meddling" by playing games with attendance. The hours the chiropractor does business should not be a big mystery. Perhaps the gamesmanship associated with upcoming litigation goes deeper than we have anticipated. Does the auto accident have anything to do with company personnel or equipment? You might be forced into going for the second opinion and tightening up on applying the rules of the FMLA. Perhaps it is time to start playing a little hardball.

Rockie

>In terms of her getting to the appointment
>earlier, within the realm of FMLA--how can I
>"force" her to make her appointments earlier?
>And if she doesn't, want kind of recourse can be
>taken?
>
>I called the chiro's office a couple of weeks
>ago to ask about scheduling, the person who
>answered the phone said she would have to call
>me back. She never did, but she did tell the
>employee I called, who then became a little
>ticked that we were "meddling."

You, as the employer, have every right to have the employee make the appointment at a time that is least disruptive to the workplace. The reason the employee got "ticked" is because she knows you are on to her game.

If this is a case of the employee truly cannot get any other time (very doubtful), then you would have to accomodate her.

Good idea to sit her down and counsel her on this little aspect of the FMLA.

LindaS

When FMLA leave is foreseeable, you have the right to require that the appointments are scheduled so as not to disrupt the employer's business. If she fails to schedule this appointments (remember these are not "last minute" appointments") outside of her normal working hours, or provide legitimate reasons WHY she cannot do so, you have the right to deny the FMLA time and hold her to your normal attendance policies. I have done this in the past and found it quite successful. Make sure you sit down with the employee and explain the situation. I always provide them with a written explanation regarding the FMLA requirements.

One last thing, unless you require a dr.'s note for ALL employees who miss work due to medical appts., you cannot require FMLA absences to be certified once you have granted intermittent leave.

System

Paige,

I nosed around the Subscribers Area of HRhero.com and found a few things.

The regulations say "Employees needing intermittent FMLA leave or leave on a reduced leave schedule must attempt to schedule their leave so as not to disrupt the employer's operations." (29 CFR 825.117) In other words, she must make a "reasonable effort" to find a more convenient schedule. You said the chiropractor is open until 7:00. A 6:00 appointment would be less disruptive.

But if she makes this reasonable effort, I think you're stuck with it. As I read the statute, you can't flat-out deny intermittent leave or discipline her for it. You can deny intermittent leave for the birth or adoption of a child, but not for the employee's medical condition.
29 USC §2612

Good luck.

James Sokolowski
HRhero.com

Paige

**********100th post**********Yippee!!************

Sorry--had to just mark that milestone.

Ironically, the employee up and quit today!! Ugggh! At first the supervisor was going to terminate her for being a no call/no show yesterday. I advised him to tread lightly--if she's already working with an attorney and s/he asks, "How are things going?" it would peak the attorney's interest when our employee says, "Oh, I was fired due to absenteeism." (Which has been a HUGE issue with her in the past.)

The supervisor called me this morning and told me I didn't have to worry any more--she quit!

So, thanks for your assistance. I will still keep this information available should this issue come up again.

Paige

Whatever

Congratulations are your 100th.
Here comes my paranoia. This ee, who has an attorney, is seeing a chiropracter at the attorney's suggestion, gets annoyed when you try to determine the hours the chiropractor is open suddenly quits. I would make sure all my documentation is in order just in case she wants to charge the company with creating a hostile environment which forced her to quit or violation of ADA or some other silliness. Reality has nothing to do with an ee (or former ee) filing a complaint.

Paige

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 04-06-04 AT 07:44AM (CST)[/font][br][br]I'm right there with ya and know exactly what you mean! I've been all over her supervisors telling them the same thing and, fortunately, they are very good about documenting situations. So, hopefully, we won't run into any fall out from this. Thanks for the heads up.