Employer Lost Paperwork for FMLA Certification and Medical Accommodation
My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: Texas
Hello,
My wife is a nurse at a rural clinic in a small state funded hospital. 5 years ago my wife was diagnosed with Lupus and another autoimmune disease. Within the next year she had debilitating flares which affected her ability to perform at work. In the fall of 2014 she took FMLA and short term disability for 6 weeks. When she returned they agreed to transfer her to the surgery department so she would have less patient contact and less stressful work load but the NP did want her to go and convinced her to stay at the clinic with a 4 day work week and limited patient contact with the blessing of the HR director at that time.
Now fast forward to 1/29/18 she returned from a week off. She was told by a coworker that business hours changes were announced and the new HR staff spoke to everyone and has asked to speak to her... it was brought to their attention that someone thought she was getting special treatment because of her schedule. When the arrangement was brought up , they said there was no copy of FMLA paperwork she turned in or paperwork of any kind stating she had the hours and change of job duties she has currently. They told her to have her primary and referring physicians fill out fmla paperwork in case she miss time in the future due to her condition within 15 business days otherwise she does not meet the stated hours and job duties listed for her position.
So it was ok for 4 years until now, so they want the referring physicians info even though the forms do not ask for it. We feel she is being targeted and they are making her jump through hoops because the previous HR personnel did not do their job properly. One of the physicians is not any rush to send their portion of the signed docs and the other will not sign anything until an appt is made which is after the deadline. She already feels this has turned into a sad and hostile environment and does not know if this is worth fighting pending she doesnt receive everything in time or to cut her losses and move on. Are we being too sensitive and defensive here or do we have a case at all?
Re: Employer Lost Paperwork for Medical Accommodation
An employer may request medical certification for FMLA leave no more than once per year. While it is unfortunate that the employer misplaced the paperwork from four years ago, it remains the case that (a) they can ask for new medical certification and (b) by allowing four years to pass without requesting recertification, they've imposed a much lower burden on her than they had the right to impose under the law.
If the employer is requesting the new medical certification in a time frame of less than fifteen days, the employee would be within her rights to request additional time.
Re: Employer Lost Paperwork for Medical Accommodation
She may also consider attempting to determine if she would be classified as having a disability under the ADA. If so, the accommodations would be a more permanent allowance of an altered work schedule.
Flma basically covers time lost from work. If they are counting her reduced hours against her fmla available time she might exceed that, depending on how much time they are considering her as missing. You get up to 12 weeks protected leave per year. Once that time is exceeded, the employer is not obligated to retain you or reserve your position.
Re: Employer Lost Paperwork for Medical Accommodation