Business Workshop: Part-time is optional, Cash or accrual?

By: Tony J. Thompson, Esquire tjt@muslaw.com

A federal appeals court recently confirmed that employers do not have to accommodate employees who want to return from Family and Medical Leave and switch from full-time to part-time work.

In the case in question, the employee requested and received leave from a manufacturer after suffering a nervous breakdown.

After using up her 12 weeks of FMLA leave, the employee said she still could not work full time and asked to go on a part-time schedule.

The company insisted that she could get only her full-time job back and fired her. The employee sued, alleging the company interfered with her FMLA rights and discriminated against her because of her disability.

The district court dismissed the case after the company proved that it did not have any part-time positions that were comparable to the employee's full-time work.

The appeals court agreed, stating that the FMLA does not require accommodation when the employee cannot return to the same or a comparable job.

During FMLA leave, an employer may have to provide reduced schedule leave to eligible employees.

But once employees have exhausted FMLA leave, the law does not require employers either to hold the job open or to change a full-time position into a part-time one.

The FMLA covers employers with 50 or more employees and entitles eligible employees to take unpaid leave of up to 12 weeks for the care of a newborn child or an immediate family member with a serious health condition or to take medical leave when the employee is unable to work because of a serious health condition.