Some advice on medical leave requests
From my backlog, this was published some time ago by Workforce.com: “A Prescription for Medical Leave” (by Stephen P. Sonnenberg and Christina McEnerney). It dovetails nicely with my recent post (also quoting Workforce Management) on “Return-to-work myths debunked”
Employee medical leaves can be high-risk, potentially legally complex situations. You have FMLA, ADA, perhaps workers comp and workers comp retaliation to deal with. These situations not infrequently end in termination, which I consider the highest risk routine employment decision.
Suspicious medical-leave requests are a headache for employers. . . Employers must contend with complicated and ambiguous rules limiting when and how they may communicate with doctors, require second opinions and question fitness-for-duty certifications. . . Employers should tread carefully in making medical inquiries, but not assume that all inquiries are forbidden. Find the thin line between overreaching and abandoning the fight altogether.
Some employers give up trying to monitor their employees’ need for and use of medical leaves and in so doing encourage abuse of the system. It’s far better to adopt a consistent and well-considered practice of gathering information to the extent that the law permits. No doubt such a practice requires in-house training and occasional consultation with knowledgeable legal counsel. But when information obtained is sufficient to confront a suspicious leave request, the impact on the workplace culture is positive. Employees who know that their employer will not permit an unsubstantiated leave will be less inclined to misuse their leave rights. Read more
I’ve just given you the article’s conclusions. If you’re interested in the issue, be sure to read it in full, as it gives a number of helpful examples.
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