The FMLA proposes to clarify just when an employee can and cannot access their Family Medical leave during an absence due to illness. Like most things, however, there are a lot of sticky situations that can fall through the cracks, leaving employees and employers at odds over whether the FMLA applies.
The FMLA provides up to 12 weeks of unpaid family and medical leave to eligible employees. This also includes family military leave, which includes 12 weeks of unpaid leave for emergency leave and up to 26 weeks in a single 12-month period to care for a military family member injured as a result of service. FMLA can be used for the birth of a child, adoption or foster care of a child, caring for a spouse, child or parent with a serious health condition or the employee’s own serious health condition.
What is a serious health condition? According to the FMLA, it “includes an illness, injury, impairment, or physical or mental condition that involves either inpatient care (i.e., an overnight stay in a hospital, hospice, or residential care facility) or continuing treatment by a healthcare provider. An individual with a serious health condition might also be considered to have a disability as that term is defined under the ADA.”
As an employer, you have the right to request certification by a medical professional. You can either use a form provided by the Department of Labor or the employee requesting the leave can provide you with a release of information so you may contact the medical professional yourself. These requirements are in place to protect the employer from abuses of the FMLA, including employees who may not actually be eligible for leave under the provisions of the act.
As an employer, you have five days of the request to notify an employee whether their leave qualifies for FMLA or not.
A serious health condition, as defined by the FMLA, is not always easy to recognize. Worker’s compensation may, or may not, apply in the same situation. As an employer, the safest way to make sure the Act is enforced properly and yet, not abused, is to require the medical documentation as stated in the FMLA to the letter. Your employee may try to justify a lack of need to receive all the medical attention and documentation you request, but the only way to make sure you are following the law, is to, well, follow the law. FML is not for everything- but when it applies, you need to provide it.
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