Employees have had their jobs protected under FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act) rules for more than 30 years, but not everyone qualifies.
Such is the case with some Shawano County employees, and the county’s human resources director wants to change that.
“Currently the county does not have a leave of absence policy. We only mirror FMLA,” Julie Hasser, human resources director, told members of the county executive committee Sept. 3. “We oftentimes run into situations where a new employee needs a leave of absence, and they don’t meet the qualifications for the federal law to apply.”
FMLA offers job-protected unpaid leave for full-time employees with at least one year of experience with the county. The current policy requires those who don’t qualify for FMLA to use their PTO hours, and once they are used, the employee can lose his or her job.
“I don’t that is in the best interests of the county, especially when we’re having such a difficult time maintaining staff and finding staff,” Hasser said.
Under the proposal, full-time and regular part-time employees who do not qualify for FMLA could get up to eight weeks of unpaid leave due to an employee’s own serious health condition or the serious health condition of an employee’s spouse, parent or child.
Employees who have exhausted a previously-approved FMLA request would be eligible for another four weeks, and the same four weeks could be granted upon the death of an employee’s parent, spouse or child.
FMLA is currently capped at 480 hours (12 weeks at 40 hours per week) over a 12-month period. Using FMLA does not require an employee to use PTO, but the local policy would require those hours be used first.
“I see an abuse problem. There’s already a lot of time available,” Supervisor Randy Mallmann said. “When we offer this, it’s just more time off that they’re allowed. Unfortunate things happen in everybody’s life, I get that, but this is just another thing that can be abused.”
He added that when an employee is gone, it creates hardship on the others in the department who have to pick up the slack.
Hasser said she understood those concerns but stressed that this policy is also for those who don’t qualify for FMLA.
“Right now, there are current employees that fall into one of these categories, but we don’t have a policy for them,” she said. “And if we don’t set a policy, we will probably have to follow our policy, which means … it will affect their employment.”
Members will study the proposed policy and discuss it again at a future meeting.
kpasson@newmedia-wi.com
