Leave of Absence of Exempt Employees
lydmetoo
16 Posts
Our company currently does not have a policy on this matter but the practice is to keep the employee on a 2 week salary contination. After that STD will kick in. Also, if the employee meets the FMLA requirements we are not counting any time against the 12 weeks. I am looking for Best Practices on LOA's for exempt employees. Any feedback will be greatly appreciated.
Comments
[quote user="lydmetoo"]Our company currently does not have a policy on this matter but the practice is to keep the employee on a 2 week salary contination. After that STD will kick in. Also, if the employee meets the FMLA requirements we are not counting any time against the 12 weeks. I am looking for Best Practices on LOA's for exempt employees. Any feedback will be greatly appreciated.[/quote]
Most people will cover the interim prior to STD with PTO/sick time/vacation rather than free money. Your system rewards becoming ill, which I think most people will avoid building into their plan. Also, FMLA leave is supposed to be designated at the start of the leave. I think you tread on dangerous ground saying nothing and then designating it later. When you fail to notify timely, the most conservative practice is to simply grant the protections but don't count against time used. This, by the way, applies even to people who are not qualified for FMLA but whose situation is that you fail to notify timely.
I cannot imagine why you would prefer not to use up the FMLA time. If you wanted to be generous, then have a longer internal policy but let the FMLA protections be used up ASAP.
I agree...I would tack the extra two weeks off (not counting against FMLA) at the end of the FMLA if needed, not at the beginninng. Because you could honestly have an employee who takes multiple sick leaves but for shorter than two weeks...and it could end up costing the company much more time and money than just two weeks. You will have fewer employees who need that extra two weeks....and decrease the liability of the company but keep the same benefit for those that truly need it.
I do not know of many companies who have as generous a policy. Most require the employee to use paid time off for the first 14 days that STD doesn't pay. And they count those days against FMLA-protected time.
As for paying them during those 14 days, do you pay full salary? Or do you use the STD payment formula? You might think about using the STD payment formula (60% of regular pay, etc). Another option is to check with the carrier to see if you can lower the # of days from 14 to 7...you would just have to analyze the cost of paying salaries vs the increase in premiums.....sometime it is better to "self insure" than others.
Do you allow your employees to bank unused sick time? Or do they lose it each year? I know some companies allow for a specific amount to bank...usually up to the time it takes for STD to kick in. Is that an option?