FMLA

Franklin

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 05-17-07 AT 12:46PM (CST)[/font][br][br]I have an employee who has taken intermittent Family Medical Leave from Oct- March to care for her mother. Her mother passed away in March. I was made aware by her manager that she will now need to continue on FMLA to care for her elderly father. Since the original FMLA papers were filled out for her mother I sent another letter (April 16) explaining she would need to have the paperwork completed for her father & returned to us within 15 days. Also, the remaining balance of hours she had available was in the letter. We did not receive any response to the the request so 25 days later we sent COBRA paperwork and denied the additional medical leave. Today the requested certification was received and signed by a Dr. as of May 14th. I feel that we have tried to work with her but need to follow the guidelines. I would like some reassurance that we have acted properly. Any input would be appreciated!

LindaS

Why did you send the COBRA paperwork? Was she off work completely or was she just not working enough hours to qualify for benefits under your plan?

As for the FMLA, you have every right to deny her leave until you received the paperwork and if she was off work completely I'm assuming you sent her a letter stating that she was on unapproved absences at the expiration of her 15 days, correct?

Have you terminated this EE? What reason(s), if any, did she provide regarding her failure to get the paperwork in on time?

In absence of a legitimate reason, you have the right to deny the leave until the certification is received and anything that occurred during that time is valid.

Franklin

The COBRA paperwork was sent because she was not meeting (& still isn't) meeting the required number of hours for the benefit. Due to the continued hours reduction she is now considered PT, if she reestablishes the minimum hours requirement within 30 days she will be reinstated to FT status and at that time benefits will be reinstated. Since she did not meet the hours requirement our policy is to put ee's on COBRA. We employ a large number of PT ee's and feel it wouldn't be fair to those who aren't eligible for the benefit to not be conststent on this. We had been advised by an employment lawyer that if the paperwork was not received in the 15 day timeframe that they were not eligible for the leave. Are you saying that they can send in the certification at any point with no time constraits and still be eligible for the leave?

LindaS

No that is not what I was saying. What I meant was that should the EE fail to get the paperwork in on time you have the right to deny the leave UNTIL the paperwork is received. Whatever happens within that time is dependent upon your policies regarding absences. etc.