Exempt employee; reduced schedule?

Dedo

Here's a puzzle.... how might you track the FMLA time of a senior executive medically restricted to 40 hours a week (indefinitely or permanently), where the nature of our business and the status of his position regularly requires more than that to get the job done? (I don't see key employee designation being any help here, where the issue is a reduced schedule vs. regular leave, there is no clear opportunity to exercise a denial of reinstatement as we might otherwise do). There are obviously ADA issues to be addressed, too, but I am more curious about (and uncomfortable with) the FMLA implications. And, it is the intent of the doctor is to limit ALL work to 40 hours, not just 40 at the office and teleconference/fax/email the rest in.

jwhite4304

Good Luck is all I can offer. We just went through a similar situation and had legal advice, etc. and it still boiled down to the employee finally agreeing to go on Long Term Disability.

Theresa Gegen TX

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 11-20-02 AT 08:36AM (CST)[/font][p]One thing you might want to check is whether this employee is exempt from FMLA as a "key employee." Generally only high ranking executives are exempt (the key employee designation is not based on functions, but is based on salary -- being one of the highest paid people). This person might fit the regulations, then you would not have to give him/her FMLA.

Good Luck!

Since I wrote this it has been pointed out to me that the Key employee still gets the leave, but just may be denied reinstatement under the regs. Sorry for the misinformation.

Hatchetman

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 11-19-02 AT 07:32PM (CST)[/font][p]Why don't you reverse it?

Rather than deducting time while he is on reduced FMLA leave, pay him hourly for the time he does work.

If you don't have any idea of how many hours work the salary is based on, assuming it is based on something over 40, why don't you do it on an average of the number of hours the exempt employee worked in the 3 months prior to going on reduced leave? It may not be exact but working with the employee, you can probably come up with an average weekly number of hours that will be reasonable and agreeable to both the manager and senior management. Then divide that into the weekly salary and that will give you the hourly rate for the salary.

This method of doing it is permitted for employees who are on salary but identified as non-exempt. There is no definitive method for caluclating the exempt emplyee's hours in the FMLA regulations or guidance by DOL.

Take a look at FMLA regulation 29CFR825.206 addressing reduced leave for the salaried employee.

[url]http://www.dol.gov/dol/allcfr/ESA/Title_29/Part_825/29CFR825.206.htm[/url]

Also, I realized that if the doctor is just interested in the 40 hours limitation for health, why don't you have the emplyee work longer on four days (10 hours per day) and take the fifth day off as illness under FMLA and dock that day's pay.