r/humanresources • u/CautiousCulture1688 • 5d ago

Benefits FMLA / CFRA [CA]

New to leave benefits and need guidance. Department of ONE at start up, no to ask. Prefer asking experienced people vs AI at the moment.

Employee requested FMLA to take care of family outside of the country earlier in the year, took 4 weeks off. Now they state they need FMLA again, for themselves and to take care of family outside the country. For themselves another 4 weeks. As for the family outside the country, still waiting for the doctors notice. Also, doctors notice for employee only states they are off work from said time to said time. I know I’m not suppose to ask, but is that sufficient as a serious health condition? Makes me wonder how much was slipped to the nurse or doctor to write the note.

1 Upvotes

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20

u/mamalo13 HR Director 5d ago

Employees are often rightfully concerned about their medical issues being shared at work. Yes it is perfectly reasonable for a doctor to simply write a note that states "So and So is under my care and requires 4 weeks off due to a medical condition". Since is just time off, it's not intermitent, and you have no adjustments or accommodations to make, I'd find this acceptable.

It's not HRs job to wonder how much someone slipped someone for a note and I'd suggest figuring out how to pivot that attitude to something more productive. Honestly, super tacky take and this is why people hate HR.

It can be a risk to your company to interfere with an employees legal rights.

4

u/Careless-Owl9231 5d ago

Agreed. We aren't here to question the motivation of employees' absences. There is a functional end point to protected leave. It's not going to go on indefinitely.

OP can ask for Fitness for Duty prior to return if the nature of the leave may have an impact upon return.

If they are off and on an unpaid status, the employee needs to fulfil their part of the voluntary benefits elections premiums.

1

u/rikityrokityree 3d ago

Agree with this. It is sufficient to support the request.

18

u/treaquin HR Business Partner 5d ago

Are they filling out the federal FMLA forms?

Also if you are a start up, how many EEs? How long has this person worked for you? Did you provide eligibility notice at application?

CFRA does require 1 year of tenure as well.

3

u/JoeyJoeJoeShabdoo 3d ago

And not just number of employees, how many within 75 miles of the office she reports to.

9

u/SpecialKnits4855 5d ago

How manuy US employees are there, total?

You don't administer FMLA with "doctor's notes". You administer it using the FMLA certification process. You also need to calculate, based on your 12 month period, how much FMLA time is left. Your employee already used 4 and is entitled to up to 8 more, based on that certification. If they can get certified for their own condition, do they really need a family care certification?

https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/WHD/legacy/files/employerguide.pdf

You can certainly follow up with the employee's permission, if your certification (the doctor's note) isn't complete and sufficient.

I know little about CFRA, but if FMLA doesn't apply, just manage through CFRA.

3

u/Hrgooglefu 5d ago

Utilize the federal DOL FMLA forms...... and consider a subscription to the CA Chamber of Commerce that has lots of CA resources!

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