HR Pulse - Fall 2007 - (Page 48)

48 HR Pulse Fall 2007 • To care for a family member with a serious health condition • The employee’s own serious health condition that makes the employee unable to perform the functions of the employee’s job. Four, absences must be tested to determine FMLAqualifying leave. By law, employers cannot abuse employees requesting FMLA leave by taking adverse actions in hiring, promotions or other employment decisions. For instance, a California employer, found by a jury to have done precisely that to an employee with panic disorder, was ordered to pay $19 million in damages, after applying a “no fault” attendance point system to an employee whose absences qualified as FMLA leave. Five, when FMLA-qualifying absences are identified, employee eligibility must be determined. To be eligible for FMLA leave, an employee must have worked at a covered employer at least twelve months and put in a minimum of 1,250 hours during the twelve months immediately preceding the leave. The employee must also be at a work site where 50 or more employees are employed within 75 miles by the same employer. Six, employers must keep records of employee demographics and FMLA leave activity. Leaves, whether granted or denied, must be maintained for at least three years. Seven, leave taken and available must be calculated for each and every employee. While FMLA leave is limited to twelve weeks within twelve months, employers have four options in calculating which 12-month period to use. Their choices include a calendar year, fiscal year, twelve months from the employee’s first FMLA leave or a “rolling” backward 12-month period. Unfortunately, calculating time used is not as simple as subtracting an eight-hour absence from 480 total hours. Eight, employers are required to divulge certain legal FMLA IMPACT IN WOMEN-PREVALENT HEALTHCARE information to their employees. FMLA provisions, along with procedures for filing complaints, must be conspicuously posted within the workplace. Further, if an employee handbook in any way includes benefits and leave rights, a description of the FMLA also must be included there, and employees must be provided in writing any related employer obligations and consequences of failure. Employers must also provide employees with comprehensive leave correspondence each time a leave is requested, approved or denied. Nine, medical certifications must be carefully tracked for accurate completion and timely return. Employers must allow at least fifteen days for certification forms to be returned and even longer under special circumstances. Similarly, employers must advise employees when a certification form is deemed incomplete and then must provide them with a “reasonable opportunity” to remedy the problem. Ten, leave must be tracked for extended periods, on a reduced schedule and intermittently, in conjunction with overlapping state leave laws, workers compensation benefits, short-term disability (STD) and other employer-authorized leaves. In addition to the above mentioned challenges, employers should also note the following key points when granting FMLA leave: • Nothing in the Family Medical Leave Act supersedes any state or local laws or employer policies affording greater family or medical leave rights than the FMLA. • Employees do not have to designate the type of leave they are taking as being “FMLA” or “state” leave. Employers carry the burden of identifying the leave and complying with all laws and policies which affect that leave. • Employees who are eligible for benefits under one law or employer policy must receive those benefits for as long as they are entitled to them. For employees qualifying for benefits under more than one law or policy, the employer must determine how or whether these entitlement periods interact. In the new world of automated FMLA compliance, Huntington Hospital now handles these Top 10 tasks much more efficiently. n Gary Harbison is CEO of Chattanooga, Tenn. based Absentys LLC (www.absentys.com), an industry leader in Integrated Absence Management (IAM)/FMLA compliance solutions with its widely-used LeaveLink® web-deployed software. LeaveLink® is endorsed by the American Hospital Association and resides on the AHA’s newly-released HR Platform, a group of products, consulting and software to help ease the administrative burden on the hospital HR department. Each endorsed component has been selected following a due diligence process that assesses quality, flexibility, innovation, customer service, and price competitiveness. Find out more at www.aha-solutions. org; click on Human Resources. Demographically, why should the healthcare field pay more attention to the Family & Medical Leave Act than virtually any other employer? The dual answer is that healthcare workforce has a much higher proportion of women than men, and women typically are society’s caregivers (not only for children, but for spouses and parents as well). On the most fundamental level, this means that, as society’s caregivers, more women than men will be required to take leave from their employer’s workplace. At the same time, men may find themselves discriminated against when requesting care giving leave because that is not perceived as a man’s function. Therefore, more leave is often given when it should not be and not given when it should be. This could be resolved by a better understanding of Family Medical Leave Act in the first place. http://www.absentys.com http://www.aha-solutions.org http://www.aha-solutions.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of HR Pulse - Fall 2007

Contents Executive Director’s Letter President’s Message HR Leader Profile: Lisa McDaniel Spotlight on Community Citizenship Culture of Engagement How Transparent Should Healthcare Compensation Be? The Value of Assessment Testing in the Recruitment Process Technology Dramatically Changes FMLA Compliance Creating a Magnetic Culture™ Taking It to the Hill: An Advocacy Update 401(k) / 403(b) Fee Lawsuits – Are You the Next Target? Compensation Offers – A Better Process Find It Again Pulse Points Who, Why and Where Conference Highlights Schedule at a Glance Keynote Speakers Social Events Conference Sponsors Exhibitors Index to Advertisers

HR Pulse - Fall 2007

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