FMLA Records FUBAR
SacrosanctFiend
18 Posts
I just completed an audit of our FMLA tracking and records, and finished with a feeling of complete dismay. It seems our "Generalist," in her 18 years of HR experience, did not know the first thing about FMLA administration. People have been off on FMLA leave with no filed request or medical certification, and no response was sent; People have been denied for qualifying conditions; and there is absolutely no tracking of any kind for 60% of the people granted leave. The HR Director wants us to play it ultra-safe and scrap all of the tracking, starting everyone over with their alloted 12 weeks...even those currently out on leave.
I've stripped the "Generalist" of her FMLA responsibilties and created standardized forms and work instructions, but I'm not sure if I need to take issue with the director. Two-part question:
May we "reboot" the everyone's FMLA time back to 12 weeks without liability? Is their anyway I can alleviate the liability for those denied for qualifying reasons?
TIA
-SF
Comments
You'll never get in trouble for alotting too much FMLA time, only for granting too little. "Rebooting" in light of the records fiasco is the safest route.
For those who were denied leave for qualifying reasons, I wouldn't go to them and tell them that the Company failed in its duty to grant them FMLA leave that they were due. However, I would go back and ensure that any warnings or attendance points or other negative side affects were expunged from their records. I would also conduct a FMLA training session for supervisors and managers so they know how to handle FMLA issues. Our biggest problem here is that supervisors often know the reason for an absence but then fail to tell anybody in HR, so the FMLA time counting only occurs when the supervisor does what he or she is supposed to do (25%) or the attendance coordinator is up to date on her reporting (20%) and she notices a string of absences (20%) or if the employee tells me (35%).
I agree that rebooting is the safest route. For those that were denied leave before, I agree not to tell them the company messed up, but if the supervisor knows that this person is still dealing with the issue that caused him/her to request FMLA in the first place, I would ask them to resubmit paperwork. OP mentioned that there was issues with the paperwork. I would ask the employee to submit new paperwork, including the medical certification so that the request can be reviewed again. This way, if someone should really have been granted FMLA, the company is doing the right thing and trying to take care of them now. If the request was originially declined and that was the right decision then you have the proper paperwork to prove that.
Also agree that training is needed. FMLA is difficult enough to manage for those that try to follow the law, let alone when someone that doesn't know what they are doing is managing the process.
I agree that rebooting is the safest route. For those that were denied leave before, I agree not to tell them the company messed up, but if the supervisor knows that this person is still dealing with the issue that caused him/her to request FMLA in the first place, I would ask them to resubmit paperwork. OP mentioned that there was issues with the paperwork. I would ask the employee to submit new paperwork, including the medical certification so that the request can be reviewed again. This way, if someone should really have been granted FMLA, the company is doing the right thing and trying to take care of them now. If the request was originially declined and that was the right decision then you have the proper paperwork to prove that.
Also agree that training is needed. FMLA is difficult enough to manage for those that try to follow the law, let alone when someone that doesn't know what they are doing is managing the process.
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IT brings up a good point about those who may be having an ongoing need. Another way you can address this to potentially avoid unnecessary advertisement of the problem would be to review requests and paperwork already submitted. You can always prepare a letter granting FMLA on the same cert and point out, at that juncture, that as a result of an "audit" of leave requests, they have suffered no attendance penalties for the time they missed since their previous request. Check with a lawyer on the exact wording of the letter.
Thanks for the great advice!
-SF