What exactly are the FMLA notice requirements employees must meet before taking leave?
The answer isn’t simple – and getting it wrong can expose employers to costly legal risks.
That’s why HR professionals need to understand a new federal appeals court ruling that sheds important light on FMLA notice obligations. Here’s what happened.
Tonya Huber managed a Hardee’s restaurant for Westar Foods, which runs Hardee’s locations in Nebraska and Iowa.
About two months after she started working for Westar, Hubers was diagnosed with diabetes. As a result, she needed to take insulin at work and to eat during her shifts. She said management was not helpful, with one supervisor allegedly telling her that her need to store insulin at room temperature at work was a “[you] problem, not a [me] problem.”
Huber repeatedly violated Westar’s rule requiring her to let a supervisor know immediately if she would be late or absent. After she had done so three times, an incident took place that led to her termination.
Specifically, Huber woke up one morning feeling “in a complete fog” and with low blood sugar. She drove herself to a clinic, where a doctor placed her on an IV. She called her boyfriend several times, but the restaurant opened five hours late because she did not call anyone at work until the next day.
On that call, she told a manager that she needed to take sick leave and mentioned a doctor’s...
Campbell’s, a renowned canned soup brand, recently terminated a high-ranking executive following the emergence of a recording in which he made racially insensitive statements and alleged that the ...