Form to Request FMLA?
sk8n
32 Posts
As an employer, we do not qualify for FMLA (fewer than 50 employees) but have a provison in our personnel policy for FMLA. One pregnant ee will be setting the precedent for any other staff person who may have a baby or adopt in the future.
She wants to take 12 weeks out of the office - 6 to 8 as 'maternity leave' without pay. Because of her key position, we need her to work as soon as possible, and we have discussed her working from home part-time the last 4-6 weeks.
1) Is there a form for requesting FMLA--or leave without pay, beyond what we would use for an "Absent from Work" form? (which is brief, simple, and usually used for requesting vacation, or completed after a brief illness)
2) How would I classify her and pay her if she works part-time from home? She is a full-time exempt position now.
As an aside and not related to FMLA, my dilemma is that she also now tells me she is not entirely sure she wants to continue working full time after our major event -- her responsibility as our convention coordinator--which is only a few weeks after her 12-week period out of the office. That means she will take 6-8 weeks unpaid leave, 4-6 working part-time from home, work for about a month in the office and on-site at our convention, then decide if she wants to continue working or not. So do I begin looking for her replacement or wait until she decides?
#-o
She wants to take 12 weeks out of the office - 6 to 8 as 'maternity leave' without pay. Because of her key position, we need her to work as soon as possible, and we have discussed her working from home part-time the last 4-6 weeks.
1) Is there a form for requesting FMLA--or leave without pay, beyond what we would use for an "Absent from Work" form? (which is brief, simple, and usually used for requesting vacation, or completed after a brief illness)
2) How would I classify her and pay her if she works part-time from home? She is a full-time exempt position now.
As an aside and not related to FMLA, my dilemma is that she also now tells me she is not entirely sure she wants to continue working full time after our major event -- her responsibility as our convention coordinator--which is only a few weeks after her 12-week period out of the office. That means she will take 6-8 weeks unpaid leave, 4-6 working part-time from home, work for about a month in the office and on-site at our convention, then decide if she wants to continue working or not. So do I begin looking for her replacement or wait until she decides?
#-o
Comments
If your policy protects the EEs job while on approved LOA, then you should do that for this EE. I don't see anything wrong with giving her a date by which you need an answer about her intent to return to work.
When LOA's are granted, the employer is making an assumption the EE will return to work, otherwise, why grant the leave?
Why not reach an agreement about the as-needed work from home and give it an agreed upon value related to the work to be completed. If it half the work, then how about half the pay?
It is completely reasonable for your company to protect itself. By the way, make sure your state does not have a FML type law that obligates smaller companies to play in this arena.