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Leave

Can we force employees to use vacation days as part of FMLA leave?

04/15/2010
Q. In accordance with the FMLA, we provide up to 12 weeks of job-protected leave to eligible employees for a qualified reason. Leave under the FMLA is unpaid. However, may we require employees to concurrently exhaust any earned but unused vacation time that they may have accumulated?

Beware FMLA trap in no-fault attendance policy

04/15/2010
Lots of employers have no-fault attendance policies, which allow a certain number of unexcused absences without any documentation, and then punish employees who go beyond allowable limits. No-fault policies are fine—as long as they don’t penalize workers for taking FMLA time off.

Temp position OK during intermittent leave

04/07/2010

When employees take intermittent FMLA leave, it often causes logistical problems for employers. It’s hard to find someone to fill in during just those times when the employee is off. One solution is to find another position for the employee who’s taking intermittent leave. That way, another employee can temporarily fill her old position on a full-time basis.

How do we calculate the rolling FMLA year?

04/05/2010
One of the four permissible ways for an employer to calculate employees’ 12-week FMLA leave entitlement is to use a 12-month period measured backward from the date an employee uses any FMLA leave. For employers, this rolling 12-month period is the most administratively burdensome—and also the most advantageous.

FMLA eligibility: How serious is that serious health condition?

04/05/2010
One of the trickiest parts of administering FMLA benefits is figuring out just whether an employee’s health condition qualifies for leave. Who decides, and how?

Tighten up attendance policies, or get ready for an unemployment comp hit

04/05/2010

Here’s added incentive to have crystal-clear attendance policies: Employees who are terminated for violating unclear or confusing attendance rules may end up collecting unemployment compensation payments. Here’s why: Former employees can successfully argue that they were terminated through no fault of their own if they can show that the attendance policy was difficult to understand and comply with.

Sabbaticals, paid health care still on at Maryland firm

03/29/2010

Despite the sluggish economy, the Annapolis, Md.-based IT firm CollabraSpace has continued to offer a paid, four-week sabbatical to any employee who reaches his or her five-year anniversary with the firm. And it still pays 100% of its 33 employees’ health and dental insurance premiums.

Returning from disability leave, can employee dictate the terms of his new job?

03/26/2010
Q. One of our employees has been out on disability leave for almost 16 months. He says he wants to return to work, but only if we give him a supervisory position without a lot of strenuous activity. We have no such position available. We’ve offered him other positions, but he’s refused them all. Can we legally terminate him?

You have personal liability under FMLA and ERISA

03/26/2010
Here’s food for thought: HR professionals and managers who terminate an employee for trying to get the benefits he is due under the FMLA or a company benefit plan are personally liable for the resulting harm.

Employee out on military leave: Must we pay him?

03/24/2010

Q. We have an employee who will soon go on temporary military duty and be gone for several weeks. Do we have to pay him at all during his absence, or does he receive military pay?