The federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) requires covered employers to:

• Provide eligible employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for certain family and medical issues
• Not discriminate or retaliate against employees who request or take covered leave
  
  

FMLA regulations also place strict guidelines on how supervisors and managers should document and keep track of FMLA requests. In addition to the FMLA, several states have also passed family and medical leave laws that place further restrictions on employers.

Employers must train their supervisors and managers on their responsibilities for complying with the Family and Medical Leave Act and similar state laws. This training allows supervisors and managers to be responsive to the needs of employees and their families while at the same time controlling the employer's costs, reducing legal liability, and minimizing workplace disruptions.

• Supervisors
• Managers
• Human resource professionals

This course provides supervisors and managers practical skills for complying with the Family and Medical Leave Act. Among other things, the course addresses the following issues:

1. Before Leave
   • What are the conditions for which FMLA leave may be taken?
   • Can we require the employee to provide a doctor's note?
   • Can we ask for a second or third opinion from another doctor?
   • Must the employee specifically say that he or she is requesting "FMLA leave"?
   • How much notice of the need for leave must the employee give?
   • How quickly must we respond to an employee's leave request?
   • What steps should supervisors take to ensure that we are not forced to provide employees with more leave than the law requires?
2. During Leave
   • How much leave is an employee entitled to?
   • Can we require an employee to take FMLA leave concurrently with other available leave?
   • When is an employee entitled to intermittent or reduced schedule leave?
   • What can we do to monitor abuse of intermittent and reduced schedule leave?
   • What if we need to discipline or terminate an employee who is out on FMLA leave?
   • How do we avoid discrimination or retaliation claims from employees?
3. End of Leave
   • Can we require employees who were on FMLA leave for their own serious health conditions to provide medical certification of their ability to perform the essential functions of the job?
   • Should we require a fitness-for-duty report before the employee returns to work?
   • Once FMLA leave expires, can other laws, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, require additional leave?
   • Do we have to return the employee to the same position when he or she returns to work?

In this course, you will play the role of a supervisor who is faced with several scenarios regarding family and medical leave issues. In the scenario described below, an employee you supervise speaks with you about a family and medical leave issue. How will you respond?

Sample Scenario from Course

Employee
Peter Jones, administrative assistant, employed full-time for past 14 months

Situation
Peter says: "Hi. Since you're my supervisor, I wanted to let you know that my girlfriend is due to have our first child in two months. Well, I know I only have a few weeks of vacation time remaining and that our busy season is coming up, but I was wondering if I could take two months off to stay home when the baby is born?"

Question
Must Peter's employer give him FMLA leave to spend with his newborn?

1. No, FMLA leave is required only for the mother, not for the father
2. No, only married employees may take FMLA leave for the birth of a child
3. No, Peter does not have enough sick or vacation leave available
4. Yes, the employer must allow Peter to take the two months of leave he requested
5. Yes, the employer must allow Peter to take only the 7 days of vacation time that he has accrued

(The correct answer is "4.")

The course can easily be customized to include an audio-visual message from an official in your organization and instruction on your organization's specific policies relating to family and medical leave issues.

After completing the course, users may return to the course at any time to review the material learned. In addition, users are able to view and print out the following resources:

1. Checklist on Family and Medical Leave Issues. This document summarizes the main principles learned in the course.
2. Family and Medical Leave e-Consultant. When faced with a family and medical leave issue in the course or in real life, learners can use this interactive, step-by-step tool to determine what they should and should not do.
   

To view or print a flyer describing the content, features, and benefits of Global Compliance's online course, Family and Medical Leave, click on the image below.(PDF)

To view sample user survey results for this online course, click here.

To Learn More
To view a demo or learn more about this course, call Global Compliance at (800) 331-7965 or contact us.