Q: An employee has requested time off two days each week to care for her autistic toddler who was recently expelled from his daycare. Are those absences covered by FMLA?
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An employee who was denied leave to take care of his seriously ill grandfather can take his federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) interference claim to trial, thanks to a decision by the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals. The employer, a credit union, denied the employee’s request for leave because the FMLA doesn’t cover leave to care for a grandparent. That’s mostly true, but the FMLA has a very broad definition of “parent,” which includes a person who stands in loco parentis (in the shoes of a parent) with the employee.
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Nine Oregon counties have successfully sued the state, claiming that the Oregon sick leave requirements, which took effect on January 1, 2016, create an unfunded mandate and therefore violate the state constitution. This means that unless the state appeals the decision, the counties who brought the lawsuit don’t have to provide paid…
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Q: Over four years ago we threw a big party for an employee who was joining the US Marine Corps. She never said anything about returning to work for us and we understood she was pursuing a military career. Yesterday she unexpectedly showed up and asked for her job back. Do we have to rehire her?
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Q: Are our employees that work remotely, in homes that are more than 75 miles from our nearest location, eligible for FMLA?
Read More…Q: We give employees the choice of whether to apply paid time to sick leave absences or hold on to it for vacation. Several employees used up all of their protected leave for vacation, but now they’re calling in sick. Do we have to give them more time off for sick leave or can we count the absence under our attendance policy?
Read More…Question: One of our employees is elderly, and he is currently out on medical leave for surgery. He has had performance issues, but we haven’t written him up for it. He’s an at-will employee, so can I demote him or eliminate his position because of his performance issues? He didn’t completely fill out his medical certification, so is he even entitled to take medical leave?
As promised, Spokane’s City Council passed an amended Earned Sick and Safe Leave Ordinance (ESSL) that contains a number of sweeping changes, including a sunset provision and a change in the definition of which employers are covered by ESSL.
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With the November 8, 2016, election in our rear-view mirror, we’re reporting on three significant developments that will affect the workplace: California’s ballot measure on recreational marijuana, Washington’s ballot measure on paid sick leave and minimum wage, and the presidential election’s impact on recent federal employment law developments.
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Question: I handle HR functions for four separate but related family-owned companies. Each company is fairly small, but altogether there are 65 employees. The companies have some overlapping ownership, but they aren’t owned by exactly the same people. Do I have to worry about family leave laws, since each company is well under the employee threshold to trigger coverage?
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