FMLA Request

funkysan

I have an employee who's Father lives in Florida. The employee received a call on a Saturday that his Father may pass away soon and he should come visit before he dies. The employee took vacation days for the following Tuesday thru Friday but not Monday. He received an occurance for Monday. The Father did not pass away but was moved from the hospital to a nursing home under hospice care. The employee returned to Ohio and back to work. He now wants FMLA to cover the Monday he didn't have vaction so he won't receive an occurance. Does FMLA cover visiting a dieing relative or because he was there when they moved the Father from a hospital to a nursing home?

Hatchetman

Providing comfort and support for a parent who is seriously ill can fall under FMLA. The qualifying condition does include psychological comfort and support not only actually tending to the physical needs of the parent. The fact that the father is in a hospice would seem to indicate the seriousness of the condition. Was there verification provided?

If you had this information when the employee went on leave (including the verification), you should have declared all of the time as leave under FMLA and then let him use his vacation time to cover the absence, including Monday or have it unpaid FMLA leave. If you didn't have the verification, he is entitled to 15 days from date of requirement to provide it to provide it. Failure to provide the verification timely can result in the time not being approved and not falling under FMLA. If knew of the reason he wanted the leave but didn't require verification when you granted the leave, you're unable to require it now.

If he didn't tell you until after the fact, when he returned on Tuesday that his father was in a hospice and dying, then technically you'd be safe not to allow the time under FMLA including that Monday (assuming the employee knew when he left that that his father was near death and was going to provide psychological comfort and support. You can be technical or you can try and work something out with the emplyee that is mutually agreeable and let him know in the future that he needs to report ahead of time his need for the leave and then management will determine whether it falls under FMLA. And that next time he fails to give timely notice when a qualifying need arises, the time may not be counted as FMLA leave.

Mike Maslanka

tough stuff this fmla...is an occurence the same as discipline? or will it count towards future discipline? if so,you may want to rethink what you do...if an employee has an fmla event,even if it is not so designated,and she is later fired for it(such as employee gets 10 abscences and if she exceeds them,she's fired,and one of the ten was an fmla occurence),then you may be liable under the fmla...regards from texas,mike maslanka