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Leave of absence

US Vinyl Mfg CorpUS Vinyl Mfg Corp 1 Post
in HR & Employment Law Vote Up0Vote Down
I have an employee whose boyfriend is in the hospital and has been for over a month. She has missed a lot of time being at the hospital with him. It has gotten to the point that she is staying there everyday and missing work. Can we legally ask her to take a leave of absence if she continues to miss work. She is paid hourly and does not get paid for her time off to be with him. She has used all of her comp. time.
Any help with this question will be appreciated.

Thanks, this is my first time using the forum so please overlook any of my errors.


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Comments

  • 5 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • LivindonSouthLivindonSouth 1,358 Posts
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    Great question. Yes, the company can do what you propose. Do you guys already have a policy regarding LOA or a past practice of granting them? It's not really that important that you have either, just important to consider not deviating from established practice and a concern for precedent setting. The only thing I suggest you consider is, perhaps, have you in the past denied a requested LOA for protected classes and now are considering one for a non-protected member. Just a stretch, but stranger things have wound up in title VII complaints. It's generous of you to consider a way to NOT terminate her in a time of personal tragedy for her.
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  • GenoGeno 184 Posts
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    Question: "Can we legally ask her to......"

    Answer: You can legally ask her to do a lot of things including to clean out her desk/locker and depart the premises. The question is, what do you want to do with her?

    Geno
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  • Gillian3Gillian3 913 Posts
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    [font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 09-27-05 AT 12:41PM (CST)[/font][br][br]Ditto.

    Since Geno and I posted at the same time, the "ditto" applied to Don's post. There are no legalities dealing with your situation, so company policy governs. If you have a policy or a history of doing things a certain way, that is your policy. If you don't have one, you can be as generous or hard as you wish to be, then create one. I vote for generous if you can do so without creating a hardship to the business.
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  • ShadowfaxShadowfax 910 Posts
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    I agree w/others but am concerned about your use of the term 'comp' time.If you mean vacation and PTO and such - ok. If you mean compensatory time off for time worked, you have aproblem unless you are a governmental.
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  • Craig DCraig D 44 Posts
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    You would send a very good message to the rest of your ee's if you allowed her to take a LOA. It shows that your company cares about people and that they are not just "workers". As others have said, based on your past practices it is legal.
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