Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
By Jeffrey A. Gruen The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit— which covers Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania—recently found that an employer can be liable for interference with an employee’s Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) rights when it denies leave on the basis of a vague medical certification without first providing notice […]
When is intermittent leave permitted under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)? Under what circumstances—if any—is use of intermittent leave prohibited?
By Susan Prince, JD, M.S.L. A joint employment relationship and the responsibilities that go with it can be very confusing for employers. Just establishing whether or not a joint employment relationship even exists can be a point of contention. Therefore, on January 20, 2016, the federal Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division (WHD) […]
By Susan Schoenfeld, JD U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) Branch Chief Helen Applewhaite recently promised that the DOL would be conducting stepped-up FMLA enforcement, including more on-site visits by federal investigators—she delivered.
Closing down a plant or laying off employees is a big decision for an organization, and it directly impacts the lives of all of the employees involved. Giving employees ample notice of such a transition is the idea behind the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act.
By Al Vreeland, JD The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is one of the more difficult laws for employer compliance. The regulations are long and convoluted and filled with traps for employers. And now, in a case from the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals (which covers Alabama, Florida and Georgia), we learn that […]
By Susan Schoenfeld, JD BLR’s in-house FMLA expert, Susan Schoenfeld, JD, answers a subscriber question about employee leave requests for the adoption of a child.
What are an employer’s obligations regarding benefits for an employee who is out on leave under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) or the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)?
By Marylou Fabbo, JD The moment every supervisor and HR professional dreads … an employee comes into their office and says they want (or need) to take FMLA leave. The knee-jerk reaction may be to approve the leave in order to avoid a possible claim of FMLA interference or retaliation, but denying a request for […]
An appeals court won’t rehear a case in which it ruled that United Airlines was not required to reassign a worker with a disability because that accommodation would have violated its collective bargaining agreement’s seniority policy. The court also held that the lower court properly dismissed the case because the employee failed to identify any […]