How do you deal with the supervisor who appears to be on a “personal crusade” to “eradicate all Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) abuse”? What about the supervisor who likes to pretend he doesn’t know that FMLA leave exists? Read on to find out.
Training and Communication Are Key
The FMLA can be complicated—and so can getting your supervisors on the same page when it comes to administering FMLA leave.
These tips should help.
1. Conduct annual FMLA “refresher” training for all supervisors.
2. Begin each FMLA training session with a friendly reminder that the FMLA is one of the few laws that allows individual supervisor liability (which should guarantee at least marginal attention for the remaining eight tips).
3. Request that all information concerning the medical and health issues of employees and their immediate family members (spouse, parent, or child)—including questions they may have about whether their particular situation qualifies for FMLA leave—flow to Human Resources (HR). This helps channel employees’ knowledge of “what’s really going on” in a positive manner rather than in a negative way.
Emphasize that all information should be conveyed orally rather than in writing, whenever possible. Under most circumstances, written communications will have to be provided to the employee’s attorney as part of any future lawsuit involving an FMLA interference or retaliation claim.
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4. Convey that it is OK to track patterns of FMLA leave that seem suspicious (e.g., employees who use intermittent FMLA leave only on Fridays or around company holidays).
Emphasize again that communications about suspicious leave should be conveyed to HR with care.
Additionally, they should be relayed orally, whenever possible. If written documentation is provided, it should be free of any editorial comments and summarize accurately the dates or other factual circumstances involved.
5. Inform supervisors of their rights under the FMLA. (Most will be surprised to learn they have any!) Supervisors have the right to:
- Know whether an approved FMLA leave is related to the employee’s or a family member’s serious health condition;
- Be notified by the employee using the company’s “call ahead” policy that she is going to miss work, even after she has been approved for intermittent FMLA leave; and
- Ask for some details about why the employee needs to be out on a particular day (the employee can’t just say “It’s FMLA leave” and hang up the phone). The supervisor is entitled to know whether the employee needs to be off for planned medical treatment or because of a sudden symptom flare-up. He is not entitled to intimate details about what the condition is or specifically how it is “flaring up.” Rather, he can simply ask, “Is your absence for a doctor’s appointment?” If he learns that the employee is missing time because of doctors’ appointments, he should let HR know so the appointments can be coordinated in advance whenever medically possible.
Stacie Caraway is a labor and employment attorney at Miller & Martin’s Chattanooga office. She can be reached at scaraway@millermartin.com.
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In tomorrow’s Advisor, we’ll get 5 more tips, and we’ll examine a handy, ready-to-use resource that helps you train supervisors on key HR employment laws in only 10 minutes!