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Employee leave
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Employee leave
Discuss employment-law issues such as family leave, overtime, disabilities law, harassment, immigration and termination.
We had an employee that has been off since May. She had to take off due to problems with her pregancy. She has now had her baby(six or so weeks ago) and is now ready to come back to work. The problem
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Employee leave
posted at 9/19/1999 10:59 PM EDT
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Posts: 36
First: 6/15/1999 Last: 12/8/2010 |
We had an employee that has been off since May. She had to take off due to problems with her pregancy. She has now had her baby(six or so weeks ago) and is now ready to come back to work. The problem is that we do not have a position available for her. She has not been employed long enough to be on FMLA, and was not real good at keeping in touch with her manager while she was gone. Are we under any obligation to try and find a position for her? And will we be in trouble if we terminate her? |
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Employee leave
posted at 9/20/1999 2:02 AM EDT
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Posts: 36
First: 7/1/1999 Last: 5/1/2001 |
If she does not meet the requirements for FMLA leave, worked 1250 hours within the last year, been employed for one year or more with your company and your company has 50 or more employees in 20 or more weeks during the year, you should not have any problems, IF you have not promised her a position upon her return even though she does not qualify for FMLA. This also assumes that you have treated all other individuals in the same situation the same. |
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Employee leave
posted at 9/20/1999 6:10 PM EDT
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Posts: 2217
First: 6/16/1999 Last: 12/13/2001 |
I liked mmmcafee's use of the proverbial IF (in capital letters). The reason why Congress adopted FMLA leave was because employers generally had no legal obligation to hold a position open for a person on medical or other leave. If the employee does not qualify for FMLA leave (and the company told her that before she left), then there is no FMLA problem. What did the company tell the employee, however? I find it hard to believe no one said anything to the employee. If there were no promises of reemployment, then you should be home free. If there was a promise of reemployment (or a promise that she would get the next available job), then it would depend on whether the employee had a contract of some kind. Under some state's laws, a promise by an employer (whether orally or in writing) reasonably relied on by the employee is a binding contract.
You might wish to investigate what the employee was told when she left on leave and run it past an attorney who can advise you on your state's laws. Of course, if you had all of this written out in your employment handbook in advance, you would not have the question now. That's a good reason to have employment handbooks reviewed every year to insure compliance with applicable federal and state law. |
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