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  1. #1

    Question How to Learn the Rules for Medical Leave for a Possible Employer

    My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: Washington
    Hi,
    So I'm having a fairly invasive surgery next year (about 6-8 months) and the recommended leave time is 4-6 weeks. It's also close to the summer (I'm graduating highs school and need to start living on my own) so I was going to apply to the nearby fast food places. Specifically, McDonald's. Does anyone have any information on what their policies are for medical leave? Everything I've found online has been about leaving for having a child and well, that's not the case here.
    Thanks!

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Oct 2014
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    Default Re: What's the Rules of Medical Leave Mcdonald's

    A key question for you to start with is this: is the McDonald’s restaurant you work at a franchisee or is it directly owned by McDonald’s? If it is a franchisee then the benefits and wages for that restaurant are set by the franchisee, not McDonald’s itself. As I don’t know the franchisee I wouldn’t be able to tell you what its policies were, and even if you told me what it was (and you should not mention the specific name on this board) its unlikely that I (or anyone else for that matter) would know what those policies are. You would have to ask your bosses at the franchise about that.

    If it is owned is directly owned by McDonald’s, then it appears it may offer up to 10 days of paid sick leave if you are a full-time employee, less if you are part-time. Apart from that, unpaid medical leave may be available but unless you qualify for leave under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) it appears that it will be up to the company’s discretion whether to grant that. If you do qualify for FMLA leave then you would be entitled to up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave. See this overview of McDonald's benefits and its medical leave package for more information. You should verify exactly what policies would apply to you since McDonald’s is a large corporation and it may have different policies for different units of the company.

    Note that if you work for a franchisee you would also be entitled to unpaid FMLA leave under federal law if the franchise qualifies as a covered employer and you meet the requirements in terms of time of employment and work hours. One of the requirements is that you must work at a location where the employer has 50 employees working within 75 miles. Many single store franchise operations probably do not employ 50 people. An interesting issue in the law over the last few years, however, is whether McDonald’s itself is a joint employer along with its franchisees. If the answer is yes, then potentially all the McDonald’s stores, even those not owned by your franchise, would be used to count how many employees work within 75 miles of the one in which you work. The federal National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in an administrative decision issued near the end of the Obama administration ruled against McDonald’s and said it was a joint employer with its franchisees, at least for the purpose of labor union organizing activity. McDonald’s contested that decision before an administrative law judge, where the case is now pending. The NLRB has, however, changed course now with the Trump administration and is not so keen to hold that a company is a joint employer if it just has indirect control over the conditions of employment, as McDonald's does with its franchisees. The company has offered a settlement of the case in which no admission of joint employment would be made. So, for now, it remains to be seen how this issue will play out and how that might affect FMLA coverage for employees of franchise stores.

    Under Washington state law, under an initiative approved by voters in 2016, starting this year employers in Washington state must provide paid sick leave to employees at the rate of 1 hour for every 40 hours worked. That would mean a bit more than one week of paid leave a year for an employee working 40 hours a week. See more on that here: Washington paid sick leave law.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
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    1,179

    Default Re: What's the Rules of Medical Leave Mcdonald's

    generally most medical leave such as FMLA requires you to have worked at least 1250 hours in the previous 12 months and have been there for a year and if the employer has enough employees to be covered (50 in a 75 mile radius).

    Washington does have some paid leave law: https://www.lni.wa.gov/WorkplaceRigh...dSickLeave.asp but i am not seeing a state level version of FMLA.

    Employers may have more generous policies but that is up to the employer themselves.

    Is there a reason you are waiting 6-8 months to have the surgery? If at all possible I would have it and recovery prior to looking for a job OR postpone it until after you have been with the employer at least 12 months (and even then that timeoff would mostly be unpaid)

  4. #4
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    Sep 2010
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    Default Re: What's the Rules of Medical Leave Mcdonald's

    Of course around here, many of the franchisees own multiple locations and they indeed may be FMLA-covered even without that rather (dubious in my opinoin) ALJ ruling.

    The bigger issue is it appears that the poster won't qualify for FMLA no matter how many employees there are. He won't have worked for the employer long enough. The good news is that Fast Food is usually fluid enough that he'd get an equivalent job back when he reapplies even if he resigned or was outright terminated.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jan 2015
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    1,142

    Default Re: What's the Rules of Medical Leave Mcdonald's

    I agree. Instead of talking as if you are making a career of a fast food job that may or may not even work out from the beginning, I'd get busy and be working somewhere, anywhere, instead of sniffing about their leave policies for something medical you have coming up so far out in the future.

    If they (or any other fast food place of this type) love you and find your work up to par, most of these type places would be delighted to give you an equivalent job when you come back after your surgery. If you're a marginal employee, not so much. You might not get in the required hours for FMLA even if you do work for a full year, as many of their positions are not full time. Are they going to be the providers of your health insurance? If not, then I'd certainly not worry too much about qualifying for FMLA or any type of approved leave. Especially in today's economy, employers always struggle to find good workers, and if you are one of those, you will very likely to be able to replace your job quickly.

    The thing is, you're acting as if you were picking out a long term job here, where you may find that applying to fast food/high turnover places is something you do a lot in your life, and it doesn't usually turn out to be a career. Especially if you make the mistake of telling ANYONE on the job or the people you work with ANYTHING about your prospective upcoming health issues, just maybe you will not be able to get hired anywhere.

  6. #6
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    Oct 2014
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    Default Re: What's the Rules of Medical Leave Mcdonald's

    Quote Quoting flyingron
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    Of course around here, many of the franchisees own multiple locations and they indeed may be FMLA-covered even without that rather (dubious in my opinoin) ALJ ruling.
    It was not an ALJ ruling. It was a decision of the NLRB General Counsel, and it is that decision that was appealed and now pending before the ALJ. The decision in that case has not yet been issued, though the trial has been held, and the issue now before the court is whether to approve the settlement that McDonald’s has put forward. I’m guessing you have not read the General Counsel complaint; it is not readily available on-line from the NLRB since it contains information that is not public and would have to be redacted. But before you decide whether the principle upon which it was based is sound, read the case that first expanded the concept of joint employer to certain situations in which indirect control exists, Browning-Ferris Indus. of California, Inc., 362 NLRB No. 186 (Aug. 27, 2015). While I myself have some reservations about the approach announced in the decision, it is certainly not far-fetched either. The NLRB later overruled that decision in another case, only to have that later case vacated after it it was determined that one of the NLRB members had a conflict and should have recused himself, thus forcing the board to undo that decision. Now the latest thing is that the NLRB has announced just in the last two months or so an intention to issue rules on the joint employer situation so as to settle the matter and put an end to this somewhat unseemly litigation history.

  7. #7
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    Default Re: What's the Rules of Medical Leave Mcdonald's

    The easiest way to find the medical leave policies of any given employer is to ask them.

    At a Federal level, you will be eligible for up to 12 weeks of protected unpaid medical leave if you meet ALL of the following criteria:

    1.) You have worked for the employer for a minimum of 12 months
    2.) You have worked a minimum of 1,250 hours in the 12 months immediately preceding your leave
    3.) The employer has a minimum of 50 employees within 75 miles of your location
    4.) You have a serious health condition as defined by the statute.

    From what you are saying #4 will be met, and most likely #3 as well. However, to be eligible for medical leave under Federal protections you will also have to meet both #1 and #2.

    What additional leave might be available to you can only accurately be obtained directly from the employer. Not all employers make their leave policies available online.

  8. #8
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    Default Re: What's the Rules of Medical Leave Mcdonald's

    Quote Quoting cbg
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    3.) The employer has a minimum of 50 employees within 75 miles of your location
    4.) You have a serious health condition as defined by the statute.

    From what you are saying #4 will be met, and most likely #3 as well.
    Not sure how you got the conclusion about #3. We don’t know anything about the restaurant where the OP works. He/she might work for a single store franchise that doesn't have 50+ employees. Or the store may be located in a small town such that there aren't any other stores near enough to be able to reach 50 within 75 miles. Certainly it is possible that requirement is met, but whether it is likely, well, that remains to be seen.

  9. #9
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    Default Re: What's the Rules of Medical Leave Mcdonald's

    I said likely, not definitely. But he'll have to meet all four before FMLA is met, regardless of what guesses we may take from outside the situation. If it turns out that #3 has not been met, then that's the ball game.

  10. #10
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    Default Re: What's the Rules of Medical Leave Mcdonald's

    In my entire career working with employment issues, I have seen so very few people who actually lasted a full year at any one fast food restaurant that I think this OP's worries about medical leave policies on a job he/she hasn't gotten yet are very much premature. And it sounds like he/she is about to try to research before there's really a job in the offing. What I'm seeing is no prior work experience in the field, someone just finishing high school, expecting "to get out on my own" with this fast food job. But from the sound of things this may not be a major career move.

    I'm still interested in who is going to carry the health insurance to pay for this rather serious sounding surgery, and why it is being postponed till so far out in the future? Is it an elective surgery? I would suggest the OP apply to several fast food places in the area, see who offers him/her a position and ask them questions about what their medical leave policies are before accepting a job (and without revealing that they are anticipating surgery in 6-8 months) and chose the best sounding.

    Right offhand, I'd say that the average fast food place will have around 20-25 employees at a time. Don't know if FMLA would count all the employees in the particular franchise. But then, we don't know that this person is even going to get a job, that he/she is going to last a full year, is willing to wait a year to have the surgery, is going to get in 1250 hours in that time, if the surgery is major medical procedure for a serious condition or elective, etc. So all that is really important at the present is this particular business' medical leave policies.

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