Not really abuse but unsure of your policy on naming.

A person new to the forums has posted under the name "hrjews4jesus".  I don't know how BLR feels about names with religious content, particularly religious content that may be contentious (e.g., between some jews and some christians) and therefore distract from normal forum content.

We have an employee, Phil, who is on STD now, and will go to LTD at the end of July.  He does not qualify for FMLA.  But I'm having trouble finding answers to my questions because almost all the resources address FMLA. 

Some background factoids:  Our STD plan is self-insured.  Our LTD plan is a purchased policy.  Phil works in NY and lives in NJ.  He works in our Manhattan Branch which has only 11 EEs.  Phil is the only person in that particular job.

We have hired a temporary employee, Alex, to cover Phil's job while he is on STD.  We hired Alex as a temp through July, and told him that we would re-assess his status at that time, depending on whether Phil would be coming back to his old job or not.

So far, it appears very unlikely that Phil will be able to perform his job with the medical conditions he's got.   Assuming the insurance company continues to find him qualified for the benefit ("disabled"), he will be able to collect LTD benefits until he is 65, which will be in December of 2025

One question is: at what point does Phil cease to be our "employee"?   Is he considered our employee -- albiet an "inactive employee" -- all the way through until Dec 2025?  What if he finds work elsewhere -- would he cease to be our EE at that point?  What if that work is only part-time -- how would that affect his employment status with us?

Since Phil is not subject to FMLA, are we obligated under the law to "hold" his job for him at all?  How long do we have to "hold" his job for him?  In other words, at what point can we tell Phil that we must fill his job with another regular employee, and go ahead and change Alex from temp to regular?  (We don't have any other positions that we would be able to offer Phil in lieu of his old position.)

What would happen if, at some point down the road, while he is still collecting LTD benefits -- and after filled his job with another employee (probably Alex)  -- Phil recovered to a degree where he could perform his old job, and wanted to come back.  This could be a few months after going on LTD, or it could be years down the road.  At what point does our obligation to him end?  I don't think that we would be "on the hook" thru Dec 2025, but I have no idea when we could consider his job officially open and fillable.

Hope my questions made sense.  Thank you in advance for your feedback and advice.

Terri, HR Manager