FMLA/Sick Leave Pay

2031753

I work in Human Resource in a small rural hospital and I have an employee who's husband has terimal cancer. She's had to take several days off to care for him--(off and on). Up to now I have not counted this against her FMLA time as she has used her paid time off for these days missed. Her husband is progressively getting worse, and her PTO time will soon run out. She's wondering if she will be able to use her sick leave time that she has accumulated (130 hrs.) when she does have to stay with him continuely and she has no PTO left. Our policy states you must first use 32 hrs of your paid time off, and then you may use your sick time, therefore, it's wise to keep 32 hrs of PTO in your bank at all times. Would this be a company policy decision? I'll start her FMLA when she has to stay with him constantly. Is it ok to put off the FMLA if an employee has plenty of PTO to cover their time off. She is a key employee who works in administration, and considering her circumstances, I've not counted this time against her FMLA. Is this ok?
Thanks for your advice.
N.F.

LindaS

Addressing the issue of your choice NOT to count the hours missed as FMLA, you may be making a huge mistake. I can see that you are trying to be compassionate toward your employee but you have to remember that decisions made now will have an impact on other employees wanting leave later. Best thing to do is count all her time missed as FMLA, regardless of whether she is using paid leave or not and once she exhausts everything, look at granting additional leave on the back end.

Just imagine an employee coming into your office down the line who wants FMLA leave and wants you to hold off charging anything against their FMLA until they have exhauted all their PTO - not a good situation.

POPEYE

I agree with LindaS. Inconsistency with a precedence can be "heck to pay." It sounds like from your post that you have a policy in place for using PTO and sick leave so you may apply that with concurrent FML.