The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) was enacted to help employees take leave for their own serious health conditions or to care for a close family member with a serious health condition. Although the intent of the law is good, abuse of FMLA does occur—and sometimes in some unique ways. Consider the case of one employee who was fired after taking a cruise for an “FMLA vacation.”
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Vacation is definitely not a term you hear too often when you think of FMLA. It’s not supposed to be some fun-filled event, it’s supposed to be a time for you to recover from a serious medical condition or to help a family member recover. Attorney Jeff Nowak recently reported on one Washington State worker who tried, and failed, to use her doctor’s prescription for FMLA leave for a cruise on the “Love Boat.”
The worker was employed by the Washington Employment Security Department. She had a history of suffering from migraines and had previously taken FMLA intermittent leave to treat her condition. In January 2011, she put in a request for 2 weeks of FMLA leave—what she referred to as “FMLA vacation.”
During her “leave,” her stepfather told one of her coworkers that she was on a cruise with her husband aboard the Love Boat. The employer, understandably wanting some answers, reached out to the employee’s doctor.
Her doctor claimed she wasn’t incapable of working while she was on the cruise but felt that the time away from work would help alleviate her migraines. The doctor later expressed that he had approved “FMLA vacation” time simply because the employee told him she had vacation time available.
When the employee returned to work, there was a 12-page termination letter waiting for her. Among other reasons listed for her termination, the employer claimed she “inappropriately and in violation of agency policy took a prearranged cruise with [her] husband, which was not related to [her] FMLA-approved medical condition.”
The employee tried to sue, but the court found that she showed no evidence that she was incapacitated from working while she was gone from work, and there was no evidence that a 2-week cruise was medically necessary to deal with her migraines. The lesson here? The Love Boat may save your marriage but, in the end, it may end up costing you your job!