FMLA retaliation

[Billythek]

My boss has threatened to change my days off because I often use my intermittent FMLA leave on my 5th day of work in a row. I have Rheumatoid Athritis, which affects my hands and hips. I am a casino card dealer. By my 3rd day of work my hands hurt so much that I need pain killers to get by. After my 4th day of work I can't work another day.
My 5th day is Sunday. My boss said that he can't have me calling out on sundays, so he is changing my days off so that my 5th day is Wednesday.
This will cause me great economic harm, as I watch my 3yr pld daughter on my days off Monday and Tuesday. I will have to pay for daycare if they change my days off.
Can my employer change my days off citing my FMLA usage?

 

[txls]

They can. Intermittent FMLA actually encourages you to work with your employer to make it the least disruptive for them(not the exact wording by any means, but my interpretation.) Its very understandable that it would be difficult to have you miss every Sunday. Your daycare issues are your issues, not your employers.
You can easily google intermittent FMLA to read their exact wording.

 

[Billythek]

It is certainly a gray area. The law talks about "manipulation of hours" and the fact that the employee is entitled to return to work with the same privileges. I think the fact that the employer discourages the employees FMLA use at all, would be considered a prohibited act.

 

[army judge]

It is certainly a gray area. The law talks about "manipulation of hours" and the fact that the employee is entitled to return to work with the same privileges. I think the fact that the employer discourages the employees FMLA use at all, would be considered a prohibited act.

The dirty little secret is that the government (like most entities) focuses more on the needs of its biggest funding sources.
That's why corporations pay a tax rate significantly below the average working stiff.
Plus, FMLA is meant to be an opium to appease the masses, just as those EEOC laws.
The government is not your friend, its your master.

 

[disagreeable]

It is not unreasonable to adjust them granting you an accommodation in a manner that will disrupt operations in the least significant manner.

 

[Betty3]

In designing an intermittent leave schedule, the employee must try to accommodate the employer's schedule & needs. The employer may even temporarily assign the employee to a different position with equal pay & benefits to accommodate the intermittent schedule.

It is up to you to accommodate the employer's needs. Day care issues is not your employer's concern - sorry.

 

[txls]

"Employees needing intermittent/reduced schedule leave for foreseeable medical treatment must work with their employers to schedule the leave so as not to unduly disrupt the employer's operations, subject to the approval of the employee's health care provider. In such cases, the employer may transfer the employee temporarily to an alternative job with equivalent pay and benefits that accommodates recurring periods of leave better than the employee's regular job."

This is from the DOL site.

 

[ElleMD]

This is totally legal. If you are missing one shift a week, that is not reasonable. If your employer knows you can't work that day, then it only makes sense to change your schedule so you are working when you are able to work. Every parent has to figure out day care so that is hardly unique to you nor the kind of deterrent that the law prohibits.