Whether you are a worker who needs to take time off from work or an employer, it is well worth your while to become familiar with the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and its rights and obligations. The FMLA offers essential rights to certain employees, but those rights are lost if the worker does not follow the proper procedures. Employers who fail to respond appropriately after a worker puts them on notice that an absence may be covered by the FMLA can face serious consequences. Whichever side you are on, it pays to contact a knowledgeable Atlanta FMLA leave lawyer and get the complete and accurate information you need.
As noted above, thorough documentation is key – whether that is proof of your compliance with the rules or the other side’s failure to do so. The recent FMLA interference case of an employee fired three days after returning from leave highlights this truth.
The employee, G.M., was one of two engineering assistants at a petroleum company. In August 2018, the assistant emailed her boss, stating that “some personal issues have come about at home that require my immediate attention so I will not be in today and I will need to take some time off for the next several weeks as well.” The assistant estimated that she would be out roughly 3-4 weeks.
The assistant did not say anything about the FMLA or FMLA leave in her email. Whether you are an employee needing leave or an employer, keep in mind that a request does not have to mention the FMLA by name to qualify as “protected” for purposes of FMLA interference and retaliation law. The worker only has to offer enough to put the employer “on notice” that the absence may be covered by the FMLA.
The Importance of Medical Certification in the FMLA Process
The employer’s FMLA/ADA benefits administrator left a voicemail and sent an email informing the assistant that her absence might be covered by the FMLA but that the employer required a certification from a health care provider. Employers who become aware that an employee has requested leave (or is on leave) that may fall under the FMLA should take great care to ensure that all the steps they take are carefully documented. One crucial right employers have is demanding that employees seeking FMLA coverage submit a valid certification from a qualified healthcare provider. This certification document should “attest to the employee’s eligibility” for FMLA leave.
This assistant never completed that form, eventually abandoning her FMLA request because her doctor required more visits before completing the certification. Instead, the assistant simply returned to work.
During the assistant’s absence, the employer discovered that her peer, C.K., handled all the invoicing work the pair previously performed. A canceled program and an expectation of a continued decline in future invoices led management to decide they only needed one assistant, not two. An analysis revealed that C.K. processed substantially more invoices than G.M. did, so the employer chose to retain C.K. and terminate G.M.’s employment, which it did three days after she returned from leave.
The assistant sued for FMLA interference but, as the trial court and the appeals court determined, she had a major problem: she lacked a medical certification and, if an employee never completes that form, then any leave is “not under the auspices of the FMLA” and does not constitute exercising a “protected right under the FMLA.” Any adverse action the employer takes cannot amount to either FMLA interference or FMLA retaliation in that scenario, necessarily defeating this assistant’s FMLA claim.
Good Documentation and Discrimination Claims
Additionally, the assistant’s case illustrates how proper employee documentation can be crucial in defending against discrimination claims. The courts rejected the assistant’s disability discrimination because the employer’s proof of a reduction in workload indicated a need for one, not two, assistants. That, coupled with the employer’s documented analysis of G.M.’s work compared to C.K.’s, gave the employer “independent, nondiscriminatory bases” for terminating G.M.
The experienced Atlanta FMLA leave attorneys at the law firm of Parks, Chesin & Walbert are here to answer all your questions and provide the complete and accurate advice you need about the FMLA. Contact us today at 404-873-8048 or through this website to schedule a consultation to put us to work for you.