FMLA - person not telling the truth
bhamilton
21 Posts
Has anyone ever had to deal with the following situation. We have an exempt lady who's mother has terminal cancer. She intermittently misses time to take her for treatments, etc. She called this morning and said she would not be in as her mother's white cell count was down and she needed IV's. I find out that she had another lady from work pick her up as she had problems with a boyfriend, and all the other details that go with it.
How did you handle this situation?
How did you handle this situation?
Comments
I would confront her with the information, assuming it is real enough to proceed, and charge her with the attendance violation.
You can and should adopt a policy that prohibits employees from doing certain activities while on FMLA leave. You should also consider using outside sources of investigation information, such as private investigators. I have done this with success, having an independent source record what they saw, much like one does in a fraudulently related worker’s compensation case.
If she admits to it, I would do a formal warning for falsifying information. I would also not excuse the absence, but at our company, one absence is not enough to warrant an attendance warning. I would also require recertification on a monthly basis from now on.
If she denies it, ask her why her coworker would state this and request that she provide documentation to substantiate her claim (statement from doctor's office, parking receipt, etc). If she does, then you'll need to go back to the other coworker with the same question & request. Obviously, one of them isn't telling the truth.
If she cannot substantiate her claim, but still denies her coworker helped her, I would do a formal counseling (documented in HR, but not in her personnel file). I would tell her that we will give her the benefit of the doubt this time, however, falsifying information and abusing FMLA will not be tolerated, so she needs to make sure she always follows our policies and is straightforward and honest in the future. It will at least serve as a warning to her, so she is unlikely to risk taking advantage again.
That leaves the other coworker, who is most likely telling the truth...I would also give her the benefit of the doubt this time.
I had something similar happen once except I received the information before she used the FMLA excuse. I approached her on the situation and she admitted that she was planning on doing what she was accused of and I informed her that should she ever engage in this type of activity and is "caught", she would be immediately terminated. Needless to say she hasn't (to my knowledge) tried this again.
According to Morris, the courts are protecting this level of abuse. Imagine my surprise. This sort of abuse cannot flourish without that sort of protection. The ambiguities built into the Act are helping to cause this as well.
Now we have a potentially clear cut case of abuse, if we can prove the other EEs statement, and several are willing to cut the EE a break. How much of this problem is contributed to by those of us who practice HR?
I am not without fault myself with respect to leaning in the EEs direction. When you step back a bit and look at it, it's a footstep placed on a slippery slope.
No real point, but love to rant.
2. Depending on where you are with your policy, treat the information as hearsay and proceed as you would with hearsay in this type situation--employee attendance. If you typically confront, then confront. If you don't, then don't.
My take on the situation is that the exempt status and FMLA are incidental. The issue is attendance. Exempt is a pay issue. You are not going to dock the worker's pay, so it has no bearing. The FMLA is incidental, so you get the proof you need or you don't, and you count the FMLA or you don't.