Fmla reversal

[Dbaz]

Jurisdiction

Michigan

I recently went on fmla after having my first child. My employer sent me an email which I saved that approved me for 12 weeks of using my sick, personal and vacation time I have saved. When I returned I noticed I was missing 3 weeks of pay. I addressed it to hr and they are now saying that they paid me too much and they can't use my vacation time for fmla. Can they go back and not pay me after it was approved. I obviously wouldn't of stayed off if I wasn't being payed. Is there anything I can do?

 

[cbg]

FMLA is by definition unpaid so no, it is not "obvious" that you would otherwise have returned to work. If you didn't have a full 12 weeks of paid time available your employer is not obligated to pay you anyway.

 

[Dbaz]

FMLA is by definition unpaid so no, it is not "obvious" that you would otherwise have returned to work. If you didn't have a full 12 weeks of paid time available your employer is not obligated to pay you anyway.

I'm saying they approved me for 12 weeks paid before I left which I have in an email stating I had enough time. If they would of said I had 9 weeks I would of taken 9.

 

[Dbaz]

before I left for fmla I was told that I had enough sick, vacation, and personal days to take off 12 weeks and be paid for it and if there was any problem for Sedgwick to notify my hr department. I wasn't notified until after I returned from my 12 weeks that wasn't the case. My hr department keeps apologizing to me but can't do anything. I still have the 3 weeks vacation time for the year but I guess it hasn't accrued yet.

 

[cbg]

And I am saying that it's a shame if a mistake was made but if you only have 9 weeks, they only have to pay you for 9 weeks. The law is not going to force them to pay you for three weeks time you do not have simply because someone made a mistake in an email.

 

[txls]

FMLA doesn't care if vacation time is paid or not. If she says she can't pay vacation time for FMLA then that would have to be a matter of company policy. Check your employee handbook.

 

[hrforme]

I do think it is an odd policy because many employers run vacation pay concurrently with FMLA leave (unpaid) so that way they get rid of the timeoff/pay accrual and you don't expect to be able to use that vacation time after having taken FMLA timeoff. But it is possible for your employer to have that policy. I'd ask for the policy in writing....obviously vacation pay is allowed to be used for other (short term) leaves but is it allowed for other (longer term) non-FMLA leaves? If so, it must be allowed for FMLA leave.

 

[txls]

It is odd I agree. We require vacation time to be used.