Fmla/ada
Carolsmith
29 Posts
Thought I might get some quick answers from the Forum instead of going to other resources - I have a Sales Representative who works from his home. He was hired on May 31, 2011 and his job description requires that he travel approximately 50% of his time maintaining our company customer base, plus develope new buisness also. His territory covers District of Columbia, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia. I was notified today by his boss, Director of Sales/Marketing that the Sales Rep will be having surgery to his knee and will not be able to lift or walk for 6 to 8 weeks and thereafter possibly 4 to 5 months before he can start traveling again.
Since he does not qualify for FMLA, What are my options?
Since he does not qualify for FMLA, What are my options?
Comments
2. Is he fully commissioned? If so, he may be motivated to build sales without the travel... at least in the short term.
3. Has a doctor seen his job description and completed a release from work? I know everybody is different, and different medical procedures require different recoveries, but my 65-year-old mother had a knee replacement this summer and was off work about a month. I can't imagine what this guy is having done that keeps him from traveling for half a year.
If our one of our sales staff was laid up they could still manage to do alot by phone. We would just explain to the client and if an in-person visit was necessary we would either postpone it or arrange for the manager to do the visit. We would consider this a reasonable accomodation.
You have to determine if this kind of scenario will work for you, and if it does, will it work for your employee? You also need to look at your past history and see if you have allowed this length of time off before, and decide how will this kind of accomodation affect your company going forward? If you are not sure if you can accomodate, and/or if this won't work for the employee, you may need to bite the bullet and call your lawyer. Sorry, but when it comes to this kind of thing there is no cut and dried answer.
If our one of our sales staff was laid up they could still manage to do alot by phone. We would just explain to the client and if an in-person visit was necessary we would either postpone it or arrange for the manager to do the visit. We would consider this a reasonable accomodation.
You have to determine if this kind of scenario will work for you, and if it does, will it work for your employee? You also need to look at your past history and see if you have allowed this length of time off before, and decide how will this kind of accomodation affect your company going forward? If you are not sure if you can accomodate, and/or if this won't work for the employee, you may need to bite the bullet and call your lawyer. Sorry, but when it comes to this kind of thing there is no cut and dried answer.[/QUOTE]
Our Account Executives only work one day out of their home setting up their appointments. The essential functions as listed on his job description are regular attendance and 50% travel. It is very important the all Account Executives develop new business and maintain our already customer base. I explained in depth info above.
Our Director of Marketing and COO state that they are not able to accommodate him in his position as an account executive, but that they could have him do the job of an inside sales associate, but work out of his home. (Our office is in Ohio and he lives in Virginia) The inside sales associate positions pays $14.00/hour, plus commission and the account executive positions pays $750.00 per week plus commissions. Therefore, I believe the ADA states if you accomodate by a reassignment that the pay, status and benefits must be equivalent. It also states that we do not have to create a position, which is basically what we are doing for him, so in that event are we legally OK with this, or are we better off to say, sorry - can't accommodate? I really appreciate your help and knowledge. Thank you.
Can you share with us what the result was? Did you move him to the other position or has he left the company? Or, did you come up with an alternative solution?
Sharon