FMLA and Attendance Bonuses
HRMaiden
50 Posts
We are a Wisconsin employer. We have an attendance bonus program where an employee gets an extra day of vacation for every four months that they have perfect attendance (no absences or tardies). I understand that FMLA leaves cannot be held against an employee for discipline purposes, but would we still have to give the extra day of vacation to an employee whose only absence during the four month period was an FMLA absence?
Also, we provide a quarterly "Cash or Deferred Alternative" bonus to our employees and one of the requirements for this bonus is that the employee works a minimum of 400 hours during the quarter. This bonus is governed by our Retirement Plan as the employee has the option of taking it as cash or having it deposited into their 401(k). If the employee works less than 400 hours because they were on FMLA leave, do they still qualify to get this bonus?
Also, we provide a quarterly "Cash or Deferred Alternative" bonus to our employees and one of the requirements for this bonus is that the employee works a minimum of 400 hours during the quarter. This bonus is governed by our Retirement Plan as the employee has the option of taking it as cash or having it deposited into their 401(k). If the employee works less than 400 hours because they were on FMLA leave, do they still qualify to get this bonus?
Comments
#2: FMLA clearly does not require the employer to accrue any benefits (unless it's done for other non FMLA absences) and specifically the accrual of pension benefits need not be done in this case.
I would actually be more concerned about the pension one. I'm not very familiar with ERISA so don't feel comfortable advising about this area, but you might want to check into that one further.