If a worker has been taking leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act for “extreme fatigue” or “mental distress” and you as an employer discover that they’re working another job, you might think it’s okay to dismiss them just for the lack of candor. But don’t assume that! Under the current state of the law, if you’ve informed employees expressly that you’ve got a policy against working at other jobs and if you’ve “uniformly applied” that policy, that is to say, applied it rigidly in the past whatever the equities of the particular situation, then maybe you’ll be in the clear. Maybe. [Christopher Engler, Connecticut Employment Law Blog]
One Comment
Let’s face it, FMLA is a huge mess. Apparently, Congress needed to pass it to find out what was in it. I work on a lot of employment discrimination cases, and it amazes me to see the time, effort, and expense that employers go through to comply with the Leave Act…”intermittent leave ” seems to cause the most difficulty.