Clear, common-sense employment law advice that cuts directly to the bottom line. An attorney may say what the law is – but the monthly issues of HR Specialist: Employment Law and its related weekly e-letters explain what managers and human resource professionals should do that is both safe and practical in the real world of business. Learn more about HR Specialist: Employment Law and the two free reports you'll get when you subscribe... A new Labor Department opinion letter clarifies that you can require employees to provide new medical certification, not just recertification, for their first FMLA absences in a new "leave year."
FMLA law allows employers to calculate FMLA leave years (for all employees) in one of four ways: a calendar year, any fixed 12-month period; a 12-month period starting at the employee's first FMLA absence; or a 12-month rolling period measured from the date the employee uses leave.
The new opinion letter clarifies that, once an employee's FMLA year expires, the employer can request an entirely new medical certification, not just a recertification. That opinion holds with a 1998 court ruling that said FMLA leave "cannot be taken 'forever' on the basis of one leave request."
You can also request a second and third medical opinion, as appropriate, if you have any reason to doubt the new medical certification's validity. To read the opinion letter (FMLA2005-2-A),
go to www.dol.gov/esa/whd/opinion/fmla.htm.