FMLA Exhausted
sanua
13 Posts
I have an employee out on FMLA who has exhausted her leave. She has cancer and has just started chemotherapy after surgery. The prognosis does not look favorable. In previous cases where staff have exhausted FMLA we have terminated their employment (these staff did not have terminal illnesses). However, in this case management does not want to terminate since they think it would have a negative psychological impact. They would like to switch her over to Non-paid Leave and change her status from FT to PRN which would eliminate medical and any other benefits -- but she would be eligible for COBRA. My concern is that we are not following our prior practice. However, we do have a statement in our policy manual that management has the discretion to place regular full-time employees on non-paid leave of absence in instances where unusual or unavoidable circumstances require prolonged absence. Any feedback/concerns/advice from other HR professionals would be SO appreciated!! -- sh
Comments
Also, are you going to keep this person's job open indefinitely? What is the status of the person on indefinite long term leave? Are they entitled to come back to work and bump another employee later? This has to be thought out before you put the person on leave.
One thing you could do, is tell the person that they will be terminated, but that you encourage them to reapply for employment when they are able to work.
Good Luck!
This was discussed in another forum post: [url]http://www.hrhero.com/employersforum/DCForumID16/110.html[/url]
Christy Reeder's post includes a link to a sample policy on shared leave. If you do a web search on "shared leave" you will find some discussions on the topic and sample policies.
I don't know if any companies have ever "matched" donated leave or if its even something you would want to do but its a thought. For example, if Joe gives Bob a week of his leave, the company matches that with an additional week. Leave law is not my specialty so take that with a big bag of salt.
Paul