FMLA Certification: What Every Manager Needs to Know to Prevent Abuse

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FMLA Training Course

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The purpose of the FMLA

The FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act) is designed to give employees the time they need to deal with serious health and family issues. Most employees have legitimate reasons for taking leave and play by the rules.

However, your managers and supervisors may have to deal with some workers who try to game the system. When abusive employees find out about this wonderful thing called FMLA intermittent leave – which allows people to take FMLA leave in small chunks to deal with chronic health or family problems – their “health” problems suddenly surface. The result: Their frequent absences disrupt production, saddle other employees with a greater workload and eventually lead to decreased effectiveness and low team morale.

Fortunately, managers can turn to FMLA certification to curb abuse. But they have to go about it the right way to avoid expensive FMLA lawsuits.

The #1 mistake managers make with FMLA certification

The #1 mistake managers make when confronted with possibly abusive absences under intermittent FMLA leave is to react out of frustration and threaten to strike back. They might be tempted to discipline, or even terminate the abuser. Actions like these will cost you every time. Lawyers will say you interfered with employee FMLA leave rights – and that’s illegal, and a made-to-order lawsuit.

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What you CAN do is get employees to re-certify their need for intermittent leave. The employer has the right to require employees to go back to the doctor for a fresh, up-to-date FMLA certification showing that they still need intermittent leave.

Three rules your managers need to legally deal with FMLA intermittent leave abuse

  1. Your managers can seek recertification every 30 days if the original doctor’s certificate doesn’t specify how long the condition is expected to last.
  2. They can’t use recertification as a punishment. They have to be consistent and never single out a given employee.
  3. They can’t call the doctor if the employee is their direct report. They can, however, have the Human Resources person (or other company top manager) make such an inquiry.

How FMLA certification works to curb intermittent leave abuse

  • Employees will have to pay or co-pay for doctor visit needed for the new certification. If you ask for it frequently, they may figure it costs too much to cheat.
  • Most doctors are honest, and won’t play along with an employee who’s trying to scam the boss.
  • And because people talk to each other, word will get around that your organization is serious about checking on FMLA leave. That may halt some abuse before it starts.

Give your managers and supervisors FMLA Certification training now to prevent employee FMLA abuse.

Some exceptions to the 30-day recertification rule

Your managers can sometimes ask for recertification more often than every 30 days. If the circumstances of the employee’s condition change significantly or if you receive information that casts doubt on the stated reason the absences, you can ask for recertification even if it’s been less than 30 days since your last request.

Remember, when doing so, you’re not accusing the employee of anything. You’re not diagnosing them. You’re simply acting within your rights to get clarification from the doctor.

The positive outcomes from FMLA certification

FMLA certification done right gets employees back to work and eliminates the significant management burden caused by FMLA abusers.

Here’s a recap of what your manager’s need to know about FMLA certification to curb FMLA abuse

  1. They can ask for recertification every 30 days.
  2. They can ask for recertification more often if they have information that the employee’s condition changed significantly, or if they have new information casting doubt on their need for FMLA leave. Vague suspicion isn’t enough – you need specific information.
  3. They can’t talk to the employee’s doctor directly, but HR can. And they can have HR send a written request to the doctor, asking for clarification.
  4. They can’t use recertification as a pretext for discipline or to single people out.

Get your free FMLA training kit as part of a FREE 30-day trial to the Compliance & Management Rapid Learning Center.

Sincerely,

Steve Meyer
Stephen Meyer
CEO/Director of Learning and Development, The Rapid Learning Institute