As an experienced Media Employment Attorney, I get questions all the time from clients about employees that applied for leave but haven’t returned yet. You have an employee who became ill and required some time off from work and you provided that time off from work. Assuming that the FMLA, which is the Family Medical Leave Act, applies to you as an employer, then there are certain things or procedures that you have to make sure you follow before you can terminate the employee for failure to return to work. The FMLA, which is a federal based statue, only applies to employers who have 50 or more employees and that same statute only applies to employees who work in one of your locations where there are 50 or more employees within 75 miles.
Furthermore, the employee is only eligible for FMLA if he or she has worked, I believe it’s 1,250 hours within the past 12 months. If these criteria do not apply to you or the employee, then you have no obligation under federal law to provide unpaid time off. However, assuming that the FMLA applies, then you have to provide 12 weeks of leave to your employee and you can’t make any determination such as termination or further suspension unless you first give the full 12 weeks to the employee. You also need to make sure you provide notice that the leave has expired and you need to document the steps you’ve taken to give your employee notice that he or she needs to return to work.
If you have any questions about the difference employees who are taking a little long to return from leave, please contact our Media Employment Attorneys for a free case evaluation. Let our knowledge work for you.
This educational blog was brought to you by experienced Employment Attorney Paul Fellman. Our law firm proudly represents clients throughout Media, as well as Pennsylvania, the greater Philadelphia area, and New Jersey.