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FMLA and employer options

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sk8ter20arr

Junior Member
my work has a very strict relief policy in my dept (its the main line in a 24/7 factory) no relief, you gotta stay unless another qualified employee volunteers, or incoming crew has a extra person.

every week the same person with FMLA calls out and i am forced to stay over. this person has had fmla for several years. it is caregiver status, not for himself.

basically the company says "your getting paid" and just to deal with it. so plans have to be changed/cancelled or plans not be made on those days. this applies to the same group of 4-5 employees each week.

normally you only have ro stay 4 hrs if you can get the next person to come in early. if not you have to work 16hrs total for that day.

shoild the company do something different? can they do something different?
 


Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
my work has a very strict relief policy in my dept (its the main line in a 24/7 factory) no relief, you gotta stay unless another qualified employee volunteers, or incoming crew has a extra person.

every week the same person with FMLA calls out and i am forced to stay over. this person has had fmla for several years. it is caregiver status, not for himself.

basically the company says "your getting paid" and just to deal with it. so plans have to be changed/cancelled or plans not be made on those days. this applies to the same group of 4-5 employees each week.

normally you only have ro stay 4 hrs if you can get the next person to come in early. if not you have to work 16hrs total for that day.

shoild the company do something different? can they do something different?
You work when the company says you work, generally speaking. It doesn't matter if they "can" do something different.
 

FlyingRon

Senior Member
As long as you are paid for the hours (including overtime), the employer is free to be unreasonable about your scheduling as far as the FEDERAL law goes and most states. You didn't indicate your state, California has some limited protections. If you are unionized, you may have protections through your collective bargaining agreement.
 

sk8ter20arr

Junior Member
i am in georgia. we do have a union but he is also a fellow union member. there have been many accusations of his fmla usage bieng fraudulent, none have been proven true.

i have worked for here for 6 years and he has had fmla nearly the whole time.
 

PayrollHRGuy

Senior Member
The employer is doing nothing illegal and since your union won't get involved they probably aren't violating anything in the union contract.

You have three options.

1. Whine about it until the fix it or fire you.
2. Quit
3. Live with it.
 

sk8ter20arr

Junior Member
its kinda hard to walk away from a 70k job. but it gets ridiculous when you cant make any plans after work, when you work 40+ hrs rotating schedule already.
 

PayrollHRGuy

Senior Member
its kinda hard to walk away from a 70k job. but it gets ridiculous when you cant make any plans after work, when you work 40+ hrs rotating schedule already.
I could not agree more. It doesn't change the 3 options.

You might want to talk to the union and make it not so much about this one guy on FMLA.
 

justalayman

Senior Member
It wouldn’t matter whether the fmla is legit or not. The only question here is can your employer reauire you to work when needed. The answer is yes based on current laws.
 

FlyingRon

Senior Member
I'd be talking to your union folks then. Who is "he" in your post?

Whether someone else is taking FMLA properly or not doesn't bear on your employment issues.
The employer is free to give people time off even without FMLA.
 

sk8ter20arr

Junior Member
the union is well aware of this issue. but without any specific law or loophole it makes a hard for them to negotiate a change to the contract/policy. they are not going to persue a factorywide policy change without something substantial to back thier side.
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
There is no law you can invoke that is going to require your employer to stop requiring you to stay over.

I do not know how to make it any more clear than that.
 

sk8ter20arr

Junior Member
i was seeking outside advice due to parties involved.

thanks for all the input. its not what really wanted to hear, but it is what it is. hopefully things will improve in the near future.
 

Chyvan

Member
every week the same person with FMLA calls out and i am forced to stay over.

this applies to the same group of 4-5 employees each week.
This story's not making any sense. FMLA is only good for 12 weeks. Assuming that you had to do it every week, that would be possible (12x5=60) for 52 weeks, but you say there is 4 to 5 people, that means you should only be inconvenienced about 12 to 15 weeks out of the year. Is it really so bad or is there more to it?
 

t74

Member
If there are multiple positions for which you are qualified, transfer to the shift he works. Since you work rotating shifts already, whichever one you are on should mean minor changes in your routine.

(This is the "no problem is so big that it cannot be run away from" solution.)
 

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