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DOL Guidance Says Employers Cannot Exhaust Paid Leave Prior to Beginning Employee’s FMLA Leave

3/18/19

By: Brent Bean

The U.S. Department of Labor issued an opinion letter on March 14, 2019, re-affirming its view that employers must start the clock on an employee’s FMLA leave when the employer first learns the absence qualifies as a serious health condition under the FMLA.
The Opinion Letter specifically addressed the question of whether an employer can delay the designation of FMLA leave until after an employee first uses any paid leave the employee has accrued. Answering this question, the DOL emphasized that, once an employer has enough information to conclude that the leave is covered by the FMLA, it must designate such leave with 5 days. In issuing its answer, the DOL made clear that, even if an employee desires to delay the designation of FMLA leave so it can first use accrued paid leave, the employer is not permitted to do so.
Rather, as the Labor & Employment Group at FMG has long emphasized to our clients, if an employee has accrued paid leave, it should simply count any paid leave against the FMLA 12-week entitlement (in other words, simultaneous exhaustion of paid leave and FMLA leave). For instance, if an employee has 6 weeks of paid sick leave and wants to take 10 weeks of FMLA leave, the first 6 weeks of the FMLA leave will be paid and the remaining 4 weeks will be unpaid. When the employee returns from the 10 weeks of FMLA leave, the employee, having used his/her 6 weeks during FMLA leave, will have no more paid sick leave until the employee begins to accrue new paid sick leave time.
Not only does the DOL’s Opinion Letter reiterate that FMLA leave will always run from the date the employer learns the leave qualifies, it also clarifies the DOL’s position with respect to a 2014 Ninth Circuit opinion that permitted an employer to decline FMLA leave in favor of paid time off.  See Escriba v. Foster Poultry Farms, 743 F.3d 1236 (9th Cir., 2014).
In Escriba, the plaintiff requested leave to help her ill father in Guatemala. And when she asked for leave, she specifically requested that she be allowed to use vacation time instead of FMLA leave time for her trip. She then left for Guatemala but didn’t contact the company again until 16 days after she said she would return. When she returned, her employer notified her that it had terminated her as she had violated its three-day no-call, no-show rule. After she was fired, the plaintiff filed a lawsuit claiming FMLA interference, saying that informing her supervisors about her father’s illness should have triggered FMLA protection. The court held that the employee can delay the use of FMLA leave by opting instead to first use paid leave (even if the leave is related to an FMLA-qualifying condition).
The DOL Guidance provides that the rule in Escriba would no longer apply. Employers must designate FMLA leave once they have enough information to conclude the leave is covered and, if the employee desires to use some other form of paid leave, that leave would run concurrently.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Brent Bean at bbean@fmglaw.com.