Archive for the ‘Leave of Absence’ Category

Working at Home While on FMLA – Professional Courtesy or Interference?

Authored By: Stephen W. Lyman


Often times when an employee is at home while on an approved FMLA leave, work-related questions will arise that only the employee can answer.  So, the manager or a co-worker will call the employee at home and get the answer.  Usually that’s not a problem – but it could be depending on how often the calls happen.  As a recent case held, a jury is going to decide just how often is too often so that it becomes interference with the employee’s rights under the FMLA.

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Las Vegas Trip with Mom – Employer Rolls the FMLA Dice

Authored By: Stephen W. Lyman


Did Daughter Really “Need to Care for” Mom in Las Vegas?

A jury is going to decide the winner of this game.  Recently a district court in Illinois denied an employer’s motion for summary judgment when it fired an employee who traveled with her mother to Las Vegas in order to “care for” her terminally ill mom.  It turns out that the mother who lived with the employee won a “make a wish”-type grant for terminally ill individuals and that she chose to go to Las Vegas as her “wish.”  The mother suffered from a number of conditions including congestive heart failure and diabetes.  Her daughter was her primary caregiver.  Yet there were no plans to receive any treatment while in Las Vegas.  The employee requested time off, but through some confusion in making that request it was never clear that the time off was for FMLA leave.  Further, there was never a submission of FMLA paperwork that would have established the “needed to care for” reason for the employee’s leave.  (more…)

Pregnancy, Lifting Restrictions and Unpaid Leave – No Liability for Employer

Authored By: Stephen W. Lyman


Pregnant Employee with 10 Pound Lifting Restriction – What to Do?

Is it unlawful discrimination for an employer to place a pregnant part-time merchandise stocker with a 10-pound lifting restriction on an involuntary unpaid leave?

In this recent case decided by the Seventh Circuit, the Court said “No“. . . there was no unlawful discrimination because this pregnant employee was treated no differently than any other employee who was not pregnant. (more…)

Court gives FMLA “Treatment” the full treatment – What it is and what it isn’t

Authored By: Stephen W. Lyman


When is “Treatment” actually treatment under the FMLA?

Imagine that your employee who has been diagnosed with anxiety and chronic back pain asked for FMLA leave for an afternoon doctor appointment.  Your employee had already provided a doctor’s certification that his condition required periodic treatments but the afternoon appointment was with a different doctor.  So, you grant the FMLA leave for the appointment.  But later when you find out that he took the entire day off you started looking into what he did that day.  It turns out that in the morning he went to the first doctor’s office to make sure his records were being sent to the other doctor’s office where his afternoon appointment was scheduled.  In the morning he saw the first doctor in the lobby and got a refill on two of his prescriptions but he was neither examined nor evaluated while he was there. (more…)

Need Time? DOL Publishes FMLA Help for Employees…and Employers

Authored By: Stephen W. Lyman


In an effort to reach out to employees who may not be aware of their rights for a leave of absence under the FMLA, the U. S. Department of Labor has set up a webpage that contains a great deal of helpful information.  The information is contained in a downloadable 16-page booklet – “Need Time? The Employee’s Guide to the Family and Medical Leave Act“ and is focused on the questions that employees would generally raise about the FMLA.  (more…)

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