“Let’s talk about how to handle abuse of intermittent leave rules,” says attorney Jeffrey A. Wortman. Then he chuckles, underscoring the near impossibility of easily managing intermittent leave under the FMLA.
Wortman, a partner in the Los Angeles office of Seyfarth Shaw LLP, and Nancy M. Cooper a partner in the Portland, Oregon, office of Garvey Schubert Barer, shared FMLA tips at a recent audio conference sponsored by BLR.
Any time an employee is on leave, it creates disruption, says Wortman, but at least when it’s for a known period of time, you can plan around it.
With intermittent leave, you can’t. You don’t know on any given day whether the employee will be at work or not, and that’s hard to manage.
However, there are some rules and requirements that give at least some ability to control the process.
First, says Wortman, there has to be a specific request for intermittent leave—the medical certification form has to specifically request it.
Second, remember that recertification can be utilized with regard to intermittent leave, so you may require recertification every 30 days.
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Another alternative is the transfer option. You can require employees to work in an alternative position of equal pay to allow you to manage the intermittent leave.
Employees Must Work with You
Ask employees to work with you to schedule leave around your “push” times, says Cooper.
For example, if an employee wants to be gone for a treatment every day at 2 p.m. and it’s an hour’s drive away, you can ask, “Could you do it earlier or later to minimize the impact?”
What’s the biggest FMLA takeaway? Document expectations of employees during leave, and work together to achieve the goals of the leave. Be proactive, stay in it, and be consistent.
Beyond that, you just have to deal, Cooper says.
Unfortunately, FMLA is Not HR’s Only Challenge
FMLA, the gift that keeps on giving. But it’s not HR’s only challenge by any means. HR is not an easy job, and it’s especially difficult in a small department where one or two people have to do it all, from succession planning to recruiting to training to recordkeeping to FMLA management. How can anyone possibly handle it?
We asked our editors if there was any special help directed right at the smaller—or even one-person—HR office. They say Managing an HR Department of One is unique in addressing the special pressures small HR departments face. Here are some of the features included:
· Tutorial on how HR supports organizational goals. This section explains how to probe for what your top management really wants, and how to build credibility in your ability to deliver it.
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· Overview of compliance responsibilities, through a really useful 2-page chart of 21 different laws with which HR must comply. These range from the well-known Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and FMLA to lesser known, but equally critical rules such as Executive Order 11246. Also included are federal and state posting requirements. (Proper postings are among the first things a visiting inspector looks for … especially now, with the repeated changes in the minimum wage.)
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· Prewritten forms, policies, and checklists. These are enormous work-savers! Managing an HR Department of One has 46 such forms, from job applications and background check sheets to performance appraisals and leave requests, in both paper and on CD. The CD lets you easily customize any form with your company’s name and specifics.
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Specifically requesting intermettent leave is not a problem. The problem is vague leave duration specified in the medical certification form.