Patti's Blog - Advocate for Elders, People with Disabilities and Their Families

Top 10 Strategies for Effective Absence, Leave and Disability Management by Healthcare Employers

Excerpt from: Becker's Hospital Review (click for full article)

 

Healthcare employers face unique challenges when it comes to absence, leave and disability management due to the need to balance several countervailing interests including running a 24-hour healthcare operation, ensuring patient care remains paramount, ensuring compliance with the law and maintaining employee satisfaction. This article discusses recent legal developments concerning the Family and Medical Leave Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act and provides the top 10 strategies for effectively managing leaves of absence and mitigating legal risks.

New FMLA Rules for Military Families

Excerpt from: Warner, Norcross & Judd (click for full article)

 

It may be time to update your Family and Medical Leave Policy. The Department of Labor (DOL) recently issued a new Final Rule  that takes effect on March 8, 2013. Among other changes, the Final Rule expands the military caregiver and qualifying exigency leave provisions.

Military Caregiver Leave allows an eligible employee who is the spouse, parent, child or next of kin of a covered service member with a serious illness or injury to take up to 26 work weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave during any single 12-month period to care for the service member. Previously, military caregiver leave was limited to the family members of current covered service members. The Final Rule expands the military caregiver leave to include family members of “covered veterans.”

A “covered veteran” is an individual who (1) was a member of the Armed Forces, including a member of the National Guard or Reserves; (2) was discharged or released under conditions other than dishonorable; and (3) was discharged or released during the five-year period before the first date the eligible employee takes FMLA leave to care for the covered veteran.

The Final Rule also expands the definition of “serious injury or illness” to include injuries or illnesses that pre-existed the service member or covered veteran’s active duty, but were aggravated in the line of duty

Qualifying Exigency Leave has been expanded. Previously, it was limited to eligible employees whose family member was a military member of the National Guard and Reserves. Now the definition includes members of the Regular Armed Forces on covered active duty. “Covered active duty” requires deployment to a foreign country.

Tom Sapienza, Worker Fired After Taking Unpaid Leave To Care For Dying Wife, Plans To Sue

Excerpt from: Huffington Post (click for full article)

 

According to the paper, Sapienza had already used up his vacation and sick days when he asked to be given unpaid leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act, a federal law that requires employers to give workers time off if a member of their family is ill. The law requires employers to hold the worker's job for them while they are on leave, but unfortunately for Sapienza, being laid off had prevented him from clocking enough hours to qualify, The Boston Globe notes.

Nevertheless, the city still gave Sapienza unpaid leave and told him they'd keep his job for him.

However, on Nov. 26 -- the Monday after Thanksgiving -- Sapienza was fired. The Lawrence Department of Public Works did not immediately return a request for comment from The Huffington Post, but a representative told The Eagle Tribune that Sapienza had been fired because they could no longer keep his job open for him.

Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

Excerpt from: Fed Smith (click for full article)

 

A very commonly asked question is “how do I make sure I comply with the provisions of FMLA and the ADA?”  Or, “what are FMLA and the ADA companion laws that must be considered when someone has a serious health issue?”

These are excellent questions, and ones that every manager and HR department better be asking themselves if they wish to stay out of trouble.

While these two pieces of legislation are separate, they are equals and complement one another under certain conditions.  Once more this is what makes the administration of FMLA and the ADA more complex, and employers can be caught in a crossfire between the two laws if they do not prepare well. Remember each piece of legislation has differing qualifying requirements, and often reading about each can throw the casual reader off track if they mistakenly apply private sector law to a federal situation.

Employers' Duties When Injury Affects Ability to Perform Discussed

Excerpt from: Bloomberg BNA (click for full article)

 

The Americans with Disabilities Act is an “inadvertent leave law” so employers considering workers' leave requests must be aware that a qualified employee with a disability may be entitled to leave as a reasonable accommodation after exhausting Family and Medical Leave Act leave, EEOC Commissioner Chai Feldblum told an American Bar Association meeting Nov. 2.

Speaking at the ABA Section of Labor and Employment Law's annual conference, Feldblum said “reasonable accommodation” originally developed under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act when a job requirement conflicted with an employee's religious beliefs. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled an employer must reasonably accommodate an employee's religious beliefs absent “undue hardship” to the employer, but the court set the undue hardship bar relatively low in the religious discrimination context, Feldblum said.