Don’t Forget That 12 Weeks Really Doesn’t Mean 12 Weeks

I frequently receive calls from clients involving an employee who is about to use up all of his available medical leave (FMLA or otherwise), but who has little chance of returning to work anytime soon. Many times, the employee has some sort of condition that the doctors cannot quite figure out or has a workplace injury and simply wants to maximize his workers' compensation claim recovery in any way possible. Either way, the common element is that the company and the employee have no idea when the employee might return to work, so the company cannot make definite plans to cover the employee's work duties.

The most important concept to remember in these situations is that fulfilling the FMLA's 12-week leave requirement may not mean that a company has met all of its legal obligations. Not only that, even if the company has a longer leave policy, that may not satisfy the legal obligations either.