Fmla leave

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txls

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My husband asked his employer for FMLA paperwork and his supervisor said, well why don't you just take your vacation time. So I told him that's fine that they want him to use his vacation time but we still want the time off designated as FMLA. So he went to Human Resources and they told him that they have a new policy called "open leave" so that they don't have to do all the paperwork for FMLA for anything less than 30 days.

Have ya'll ever heard of such? He told them he wanted to make sure he had job protection and they told him, oh you don't have to worry about losing your job. And we don't have any reason to believe they would fire him, but...

Other than the job protection issue, is there any downside to my husband?
 
Not really. If they purposely don't designate the time, that means he just gets more than 12 weeks if needed. I have heard of some employers (who shall remain nameless) not requiring paperwork until the person had been out 10 days or was taking time unpaid, but that does not lessen the protections of FMLA. I know of one employer around here I debate with regularly who only start their FMLA clock once the employee has exhausted all paid leave. Great for the employee, a pain in the fanny for the employer and technically not in compliance. Realistically, as long as the employee gets the 12 weeks of job protected leave, the DOL isn't going to care.

What I would do is put the request in writing along with the medical documentation from the doctor attached and indicate that he would like the time to be designated as FMLA. It can't hurt and should there be a question down the road about whether or not he requested FMLA, it will be there in writing. Memories fade and it never hurts to CYA.
 
Thanks Elle. You confirmed my thoughts. As long as he gets the time off no harm done. And I guess if they don't care about giving more time off than required that's their business.
 
Yep, I'd send it in an email read receipt. If your husband is still with the same employer, txls, you've told us how they've tried to screw him before.
 
I would definitely want it in writing that he requested FMLA time with some sort of reply from HR or receipt that they received the FMLA time request.
 
They definitely do things different. I did tell him to ask HR for a copy of this new leave policy.
 
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