FMLA
robinhrgirl
28 Posts
I have an employee whose spouse has cancer. He has been treated (Chemo& Surgery)and has been recuperating for several weeks. We agreed that she would be taking intermittent leave as needed because her spouse needed extra care on certain days (couldn't eat without throwing up). She has been back to work full time for a few weeks, but they have found out that he has cancer in another area of his body. He has begun Chemo treatments again which will require her to be gone a day or two at a time. She wants to go off the FMLA and then re-apply if the illness becomes more serious. I assume she wants to save her protection time, but my opinion is that she wouldn't nor shouldn't be allowed to do this as it has been a continous illness. My compassion wants to get in the way of my judgement, so I need some concrete advice.
Thanks
Thanks
Comments
It sounds as though your employee returned to work full time - so FMLA ends & now she has received the bad news that her husband is once again sick with cancer - in another area of his body - and she may have to take more time off once his next round of treatment begins. Concretely, I don't think you can have her on an endless FMLA cycle because the original request for FMLA is over & now this sounds like a new request.
"We agreed that she would be taking intermittent leave as needed because her spouse needed extra care on certain days (couldn't eat without throwing up). She has been back to work full time for a few weeks, but they have found out that he has cancer in another area of his body."
"She has been back to work full time for a few weeks" this suggests to me that the qualifying reason for the leave was over as she returned to full duties and no longer required intermittent leave. I have a situation here with an employee who has terminal cancer - that's his prognosis from multiple doctors - he is on intermittent leave and his illness is ongoing - there's no point in which he stops treatment or is able to work full-time. I don't think you can keep someone on an ongoing FMLA clock, especially when the need for her to be present ended & she was able to return to work full-time.
For example, say a person needs the month of March off for an FMLA reason. Their FMLA clock started as soon as their first day was missed. They return to work in April and still have 8 weeks to use from April through the following February. In March their year starts anew.
"She wants to go off the FMLA and then re-apply if the illness becomes more serious. I assume she wants to save her protection time, but my opinion is that she wouldn't nor shouldn't be allowed to do this as it has been a continous illness. My compassion wants to get in the way of my judgement, so I need some concrete advice."
She's off FMLA once she returns to work full-time and is no longer in need of the intermittent leave - and she should be able to "re-apply" for the same benefit, minus the time she has already taken, once she needs it again.
I may not have articulated it as well, but that is exactly how I assessed it.
As I replied to Mwild, our attendance policy doesn't address any absences other than those considered unexcused. I feel confident that our district would make any accomodations that we could once her FMLA runs out.