Once employees are certified for intermittent FMLA, the Monday-Friday absence pattern begins, and there’s nothing you can do, right? Not so, says HR Manager Barbara Dahlen.
Yesterday’s Advisor featured Dahlen’s tips for managing intermittent leave abuse. Today, she tackles pattern absences. Dahlen, who manages HR at Bellefontaine Habilitation Center in St. Louis, asked her audience at the recent SHRM Annual Conference and Exposition, “Nobody here has a problem with pattern absences, right?” The audience’s large groan made it clear—pattern absences are a headache for everyone.
Dahlen has a protocol she follows to fight back. “When I detect possible pattern absences (Mondays and Fridays, for example),” she says, “I send a letter to the physician.” The letter says:
Here’s a calendar for the last three months. (Always send absence data in calendar format so that the pattern of absences is clear, Dahlen recommends.) These are the days employee X has missed. Is this what the absence pattern should look like for this patient? Should he or she be missing these days? Is this consistent with the treatment plan?
[ ]Yes [ ]No
Dahlen notes that DOL suggested this process to her and it works. She sends the letter directly to the doctor and doesn’t tell the employee she is doing it. Employees are often going to the family doctor, and that doctor will often just do whatever the patient asks, she says.
Generally, the doctor will check “No,” and then you can put a stop to the pattern absences, Dahlen says.
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Wording Counts
Another of Dahlen’s anti-abuse techniques is to very carefully note what an employee is certified for. “I write “One occurrence of 3 days every 2-3 months.” The reason I word it this way instead of just “3 days every 2-3 months,” is that people want to take three 1-day occurrences. No, it’s one up-to-3-day occurrence. If the employee says his or her situation has changed, fine,” says Dahlen, “get a new cert.”
Recert as Needed
As certs expire, Dahlen is requiring everybody to get a new one. She explains to employees that what was acceptable before isn’t acceptable under new regulations and new policies the company has. Take the form to the doctor, get it filled out correctly, and bring it back. More certs now come back correct, Dahlen says, because the new form has blanks that make it easier for the doctor to deal with it.
Put It in Writing
Every conversation you have with an employee must be put into writing, Dahlen says. Send it to the employee (and keep a copy). “This is what we talked about, this is what you have to do, this is what happens if you don’t do it.”
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FMLA hassles—they just won’t go away, will they? And, now, of course, there are all the new FMLA responsibilities—like military leave and reinstatement. Still a little shell-shocked?
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These are good tips; however these tactics would only work outside of California, since leave laws are more strict and prevent employers from having contact with an employee’s doctor directly.