Employment Breakfast Program: Curbing FMLA Abuse

Employers have long understood the value of providing leave to employees with family or medical issues.  With the enactment of the federal and state FMLA laws in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s., leave became a right in most workplaces.  The creation of the new rights to leave, along with statutory protections for employees asserting it, also created new opportunities for employees to abuse it.  While the percentage of employees who would do so is small, the costs can be significant.  Moreover, because your employees probably know which leaves are legitimate and which are not, allowing FMLA abuse to go unchecked sends the wrong signal to send to your workforce.

On September 13, Katy Rand and since retired partner Meg LePage held a discussion of the steps you can take to spot FMLA abuse when it is happening, to prevent it before it occurs, and to know how to thwart it without running the risk of retaliation claims.