FMLA Employee Has Not Returned

Answer:

As an experienced Delaware County Employment Attorney, I get questions all the time from clients about employees that applied for leave but haven’t returned yet. You have an employee who became ill and required some time off from work and you provided that time off from work. Assuming that the FMLA, which is the Family Medical Leave Act, applies to you as an employer, there are procedures that you must follow before you can terminate the employee for failure to return to work.

Let’s start with the Family Medical Leave Act. The FMLA is a federal based statue, and only applies to employers who have 50 or more employees and that same statute only applies to employees who work in one of your locations where there are 50 or more employees within 75 miles.

Furthermore, the employee is only eligible for FMLA if he or she has worked a certain number of hours over the past 12 months; at the time of this writing, I believe that number 1,250 hours.

If these criteria do not apply to you or the employee, then you have no obligation under federal law to provide unpaid time off. However, assuming that the FMLA applies, you must provide 12 weeks of leave to your employee and you can’t make any determination such as termination or further suspension unless you first give the full 12 weeks to the employee.

You also must provide the employee with notice that the leave has expired and that they must return to work. When you take this step, you’ve also got to document that you’ve provided this notice.

This educational blog was brought to you by experienced Employment Lawyer Paul Fellman. Our law firm proudly represents clients throughout Delaware County, as well as Pennsylvania, the greater Philadelphia area, and New Jersey.

If you have any questions about the difference employees who are taking a little long to return from leave, please contact our Delaware County Employment Attorneys for a free case evaluation. Let our knowledge work for you.