Message #32

[andrea843]

The Family and Meidcal Leave act provides for 12 weeks of paid or unpaid leave in certain circumstances.



You can use paid leave time such as vacation and sick time until it is exhausted and you can finish the remainder of your leave as unpaid leave, or if you have the time banked you can take it all as paid leave, or none of it as paid leave.



FMLA applies ONLY to companies with fifty or more full time employees.



An employer is within his rights (and almost certainly WILL ask for documentation of the need for FMLA), however once that's been provided your job is supposedly safe, however there is a little known "out Clause" in FMLA that says that if there is direct economic impact on the corporation, you can be placed in a similar position. (Therefore not your identical position).



So in theory, you can leave for a qualifying medical event and your job is safe.  



In reality...welllll.... there are teeth in the FMLA designed to keep the employer on the straight and narrow, but your job is only going to be as secure as the person you report to wants it to be.  Can they fire while out on FMLA leave?



Actually, yes.  If you fail to provide documentation specified in your FMLA leave agreement,  or if you do not meet the guidelines set forth in your FMLA agreement. Otherwise, not really.  



do you HAVE to be placed back in your old position? Usually yes, unless your employer can prove that there was direct financial harm to the corporation in your position being vacant, it's generally not worth the hassle of a potential suit for violation of Federal law.



Generally when an employee is considering FMLA leave, approaching HR is the first step to find out what documentation they'll require and to determine whether or not you want to take your leave in a 12 week block, or in increments.



FMLA leave can be broken down into whatever increments the employer and employee agree too. For instance I know a case where an admin was undergoing chemo, and was worried that her continued absences would show a black mark on her employment history, so HR set up a series of mini FMLA leaves that worked around the dates of her treatments and gave her a day off to recouperate before returning to work.



In short, it's a good plan, but only as good as the company implementing it.  Work for a good company, you'll find they work hard to keep their good employees and will obey both the spirit and the letter of FMLA.  A cruddy company who doesn't value employees will find intimidation the best way to go about dissuading an employee from taking FMLA leave at all, or will make the process so long and arduous that the employee gives up in frustration.



my fourpence.