Termination Date-Techinical Question

TBHRPRO

If an employee exhaust his FMLA leave, and does not return to work, should his termination date be the last day of FMLA leave or should it go back to the first day of the leave?

PAhr

You should first of all, contact the employee by phone and by registered mail to let him know that FMLA has expired (the employee really should have been aware of the last day of FMLA in advance if you weren't keeping him up to date) and ask him if he intends on returning. Once he says no you need to term it as a voluntary quit as of the day he notified you. This way you can recover any health insurance premiums the company paid out and if he is able to work but just doesn't want to that would make him ineligible for UC benefits as well. Is this leave related to a job injury or an illness?

TBHRPRO

Fortunatley, the employee was not covered under our group health plan, he is covered on his spouse's plan. The illness is not work-related nor was it an injury. Thanks for your input.

HRlifer

I would consider his term date to be the date he failed to return to work--at the conclusion of his FMLA leave. I would suggest that you determine that the Company has have no further obligations to provide a reasonable accommondation (like extended unpaid leave) under ADA if this is a medical/disability situation.

Don D

.....And it would certainly NEVER be retroed to the first day of his leave under any circumstances. That would violate the Act by removing a benefit (insurance) to which he was otherwise entitled while he was out on FMLA, as well as violating other provisions of the act. Since FMLA requires job protection by returning him to work at the expiration of the leave, you can't consider a termination prior to the exhaustion of the 12 weeks.