However, the employee admitted that during his absences, he was not seeking medical treatment but was rather receiving ‘care’ at his girlfriend’s house
- Linda Reed voices the frustration that many employers are dealing with when conditions appear to be temporary and only reoccur when employees are able to re-qualify for FMLA. “It’s very frustrating to see the number of employees that take extensive leaves for such things as migraines, stress, back problems, depression…. There are also a number of employees that take intermittent leaves for the same reasons. They continue these leaves year after year. After all, it merely takes a certification from your doctor to get excused from work for days or weeks at a time. The odd thing is, when their 12 weeks ends, or their pay ends, they no longer need to miss any work.”
- Cynthia Fox of Southwest Airlines Company explains how relatively minor medical conditions can lead to major abuse. “Examples of minor conditions that have qualified under the absence plus treatment provision of section , at Southwest, include: sinusitis, sore throat, headaches, sprains, laryngitis, ear infections, allergies Full Article, gastritis and bronchitis. The DOL itself lists several of these same conditions as examples of minor conditions that are not serious health conditions. See 29 CFR �(c). One Southwest employee had intermittent FMLA approved for sinusitis on the basis of episodes that could occur up to 16 hours/day, 7days/week. This same employee took intermittent FMLA leave 35 times over a 7 month period usually in time increments of less than 8 hour shift. It is the absence plus treatment provision of the DOL’s serious health condition regulation that is often used by those seeking unsched�uled, intermittent FMLA leave for minor conditions.
- Daniel Finerty from Krukowski & Costello gives an example of an employee who was certified for a medical condition he did not have. “The evidence of abuses discussed among the Human Resource pro�fession is almost legend. For example, take the case of the employee approved for intermittent leave, who took family and medical leave-designated leave and was found during that time working on his car at home. During the course of making the repairs, the employee attempted to remove a battery that was stuck from under the hood of the car-so stuck in fact, that one could visually see the employee bounc�ing the front end of the car up and down in order to remove the battery. It suffices to say that if leave was truly needed and/or if the condition was as had been certified, these gymnastics would have been phys�ically impossible.”
- Fortney Scott from the National Association of Manufacturers provides examples of abuse from manu�facturing companies represented by the Association. “One automobile parts manufacturer in
reports that FMLA medical certification forms have been received for leg cramps, warts and crying spells. It is no surprise, then, that most NAM members believe there is no requirement for a serious medical condition at all; rather, the FMLA has, to quote one manufacturer, become ‘a blank check to be absent.’
“A manufacturing employee was approved for intermittent leave under FMLA for migraine headaches. He claimed he was using FMLA for ‘therapy.’ After an unusual pattern of absences, the company took the time to observe his activities. His ‘therapy’ proved to be deer hunting.
His ailment seemed limited to Mondays and Fri�days
“A manufacturing employee on the night shift was approved for intermittent leave for migraine head�aches. The company then learned that he also had a second job driving a school bus. The employee would often drive a bus early in the morning, even though he was not able to work for his entire shift the night before ‘due to migraines.’