Human resources leaders know that employee leave and accommodation issues are rarely packaged in neat, stand-alone categories. In practice, the Family and Medical Leave Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act often intersect, and they do so in various ways. But treating FMLA and ADA issues as the same can expose employers to avoidable risk, particularly when managers use narrow lenses to assess eligibility or rigidly apply company policies.
For HR executives, the challenge is not simply understanding the legal framework. It is building practical, repeatable and defensible approaches for handling leave and accommodation requests, as well as attendance concerns. Based on common issues that arise in day-to-day counseling and litigation, five priorities deserve particular attention.
The FMLA is a leave statute. It provides eligible employees of covered employers with job-protected leave for certain qualifying family and medical reasons. The ADA, by contrast, is an antidiscrimination law that requires reasonable accommodation for qualified employees with disabilities, absent undue hardship. Those are distinct obligations, even though they can arise from the same situation. They can sometimes, but not always, require the same treatment.
One common compliance mistake occurs when employers assume the analysis ends when an employee is ineligible for FMLA leave or once FMLA leave has been...
The U.S. Department of Justice has charged more than 450 people — including a few Georgia residents — in connection with global health care fraud schemes totaling a record $6.5 billion.