By Edward O. Sweeney, JD
Many employers know that they need not keep an injured or ill employee’s job open forever if the employee is absent for an extended length of time. After all, the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) only requires that covered employers afford eligible employees a mere 12 weeks of unpaid leave.
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New York state’s Civil Service Law (CSL) §§ 71 and 72 provide for a generous one-year leave for absences that are work-related or nonwork-related.
In a troubling decision, the Appellate Division, 2nd Department, recently held that a public employer should have considered a “last-minute” request for additional leave from an employee who had already been absent from work for a year to be a request for a reasonable accommodation.
According to the court, the employer shouldn’t have terminated the employee without first engaging in the interactive process.