Q. One of my employees has informed me that she is about to begin undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments. She requested some intermittent time off from work....
Q. We provide a perfect-attendance bonus to any employee who is not absent or tardy during the calendar year. If an employee’s only missed time is for a medical...
The FMLA seems straightforward in theory, but in real life, it’s full of tricky and delicate nuances. For example, what happens upon the death of a relative for...
Many employers are discovering they have to cut staff to survive. It’s tempting to eliminate those positions where the least work is being done. After all, the...
Traditionally, employee absenteeism has been employers' main concern during the annual flu season. This year, however, employers are being urged by federal agencies to...
It’s easy enough to do. While calculating an employee’s remaining FMLA leave, you make a mistake and tell the employee he has to return by a certain day when...
Employees who take FMLA leave are entitled to their former jobs or equivalent ones when they return to work. But sometimes employers that operate many locations move...
Employers don’t have to blindly accept their employees’ medical certifications. The FMLA allows you to get a second opinion about whether an employee's...
Q. We have an exempt administrative employee who is on intermittent FMLA leave. She’s unable to work on Fridays for two or three hours due to a serious health...
Q. I am the HR manager of a company with about 350 employees. I have just learned that the company is eliminating one product line and, as a result, there will be a...
Do employees who return from job-protected leave become “untouchable,”
even if they perform poorly? Can holding their feet to
the performance fire look...
Don’t jump to the conclusion that, just because a sudden illness or condition requires emergency medical care or even surgery, the employee who falls ill is...
The medical certification process is your most potent weapon for combating potential FMLA fraud. But obtaining a certification is only the first fraud-stopping step....
Employers may be in for a nasty shock if they assume that an employee who can’t return to work full time after taking FMLA leave doesn’t have the right to...
Q. The Department of Labor’s form for the Employer’s Response to Employee Request for Family or Medical Leave (WH-381) inquires whether the worker is a...
Q. One of our employees has been out on FMLA leave for seven weeks taking care of his sick mother in another state. We approved a full 12 weeks of leave. I received a...
You don’t need to give employees FMLA leave just because they have a discharge sheet from a hospital emergency room. The real question is whether the medical...
Q. Our company offers a health insurance opt-out incentive, paying employees $400 a month if they use their spouses’ insurance plans. We now have an employee going...
More than half of employees admit they show up for work when they’re sick, according to a CCH Unscheduled Absence Survey. Here are a few simple ways to help your...