The Supreme Court's recent decision to overturn the Chevron deference doctrine marks a pivotal moment in administrative law, with far-reaching implications for various sectors, including employment law.
Read MoreMany people are uncertain as to whether the FMLA covers mental health conditions in addition to physical illness. The short answer is: yes. FMLA-eligible employees can use protected leave to address serious mental health conditions that require inpatient care or continuing treatment for themselves or their family.
Read MoreTexas Employment Law Attorney Chris McKinney discusses a common question: Is it illegal for my boss to be a bully?
Read MoreTexas employment law attorney Chris McKinney discusses employment at will and wrongful termination in today's video.
Today’s video topic is what is employment at will and how will it affect my wrongful termination claim?
Read MoreEmployment lawyer Chris McKinney discusses the Family and Medical Leave Act, known as the FMLA.
Read MoreThe lawsuit claims the plaintiff was let go about four weeks after he after he returned from medical leave for throat and lung cancer and lumbar spinal fusion therapy. According to his complaint, his job was given to a younger, less qualified individual without a disability. He also applied for several positions with the company for which he was qualified but he was not hired for any of them.
Read MoreA former team lead employee for a Philadelphia-area Target store has sued the company, claiming that his he was unlawfully fired while he was on job-protected medical leave for his personal mental health.
Read MoreSo you need to hire an employment lawyer but you don’t know how to get started? Then this video is for you. Hiring an employment attorney to guide you through an employment-related dispute can be challenging.
For this reason it is important that you do some research and get your own materials together before you start making calls. Employment lawyer Chris McKinney Explains.
Deloitte advertises 16 weeks of parental leave for its employees. However, the program "comes with a huge catch," according to the lawsuit. "[A]ny individual who actually takes the 16 weeks of leave offered to them by Deloitte loses the right to actually return to their prior position."
Read MoreCongress seeks to exploit the COVID-19 health and economic crises to gain passage of legislation that would provide broad immunity to businesses.
Read MoreNELA - The National Employment Lawyers Association, in cooperation with the AARP, conducted a briefing last week in which experts in the field discussed the interplay of the ADA, Age Discrimination law, And Worker Health During The COVID-19 Pandemic.
Read MoreThe Department of Labor issued a new rule last week that essentially lets small businesses decide for themselves whether or not to give workers paid sick leave under the Congress's new law that sought to guarantee it. Essentially, they killed the new law.
Read MoreYou can download a PDF copy of the presentation powerpoint here.
Read MoreThe US DOL has published a series of Q&As to help people understand the new expanded medical leave law (“FFCRA”).
Read MoreLast week, Congress passed several new laws to help citizens caught in the economic fallout caused by the Covid-19 Coronavirus outbreak.
Read MoreIf you are out with the flu or are caring for ill family members, check with the Department of Labor (DOL) for information on whether such leave is covered under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).
Read MorePaid family leave is gaining traction across the country. Last month, President Donald Trump signed the National Defense Authorization Act that includes a provision that grants federal workers the right to take up to 12 weeks of paid leave for the birth or placement of a child. This month Tennessee’s governor signed an order that will provide paid family leave to that state’s employees starting March 1st.
Read MoreThe country's two million government employees will gain 12 weeks of paid parental leave as part of a defense bill that President Donald Trump signed into law on Friday. But it still leaves about 80% of U.S. workers in the private sector with no access to paid family leave.
Read MoreSenator Elizabeth Warren has proposed a bill that would expand the protections provided by the FMLA to certain part-time employees of large companies. According to a summary of the proposal, the law would require employers with more than 500 employees to offer available hours to current, available, qualified part-time employees before hiring new workers…..
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An opinion letter issued last week by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) makes clear that neither employers nor employees can decline to designate Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA)-qualifying leave as such. DOL also made clear in its letter that while employers are free to adopt leaves policies more generous than the FMLA, they cannot extend the FMLA's protections beyond 12 weeks (or 26 weeks for military caregiver leave). The effect of these interpretations can create a trap for the unwary employee.
When an employer determines an employee needs leave because of an FMLA-qualifying reason, that leave must count toward his or her FMLA allotment, even if the employee requests otherwise. This means that employees cannot, for example, opt to take employer-provided sick or vacation time first; FMLA leave would have to run concurrently. And even if the employer chooses to grant more leave than the 12 weeks required by law, the employer cannot extend the law’s job protection to those additional weeks.
Here’s an example: An employee is out on FMLA leave due to a surgery or some other serious health condition. Near the end of the 12-week FMLA period, the employee’s doctor indicates that just a couple more weeks of leave would be beneficial medically. The employee asks his or her employer and the leave extension is granted. Then at the end of the leave period (now 14 weeks because of the extension) the employer says things have change and the employee had to be replaced or his/her job was eliminated. Does the employee have protection under the FMLA in this scenario? Probably not.
Over the last few years, we have seen many employers building in FMLA extensions into their medical leave policies. The policies often provide for 15 weeks of “Medical Leave” rather than the 12 weeks mandated by law. And, while more leave seems like a good thing, it can be a trap. This is because only the first 12 weeks of the 15-week medical leave period has job protection enforceable under the FMLA. If the employee stays out beyond 12 weeks, their job is no longer protected by federal law, even though the employer’s own policy granted 15 weeks of medical leave.
Are extended “Medical Leave” policies an example of companies being generous or are they carefully laid traps for unwary employees? A little of both perhaps. But the bottom line is that employees must remember that no matter what anyone at the company tells you, you only have FMLA job protection for the 12 weeks mandated by the statute.
Related: New Lawsuit Takes On Common FMLA Trap
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