Tennessee Labor Talk

Tag Archives: FMLA

New FMLA Regulations Have Limited Impact But Will Require New Poster

By Tim K. Garrett on Posted in Leaves of Absence/FMLA Law and Practice

The Department of Labor recently issued new FMLA regulations. The new regulations will take effect March 8, 2013. The regulations will have limited impact on most employers. However, the new regulations will require employers to obtain and post a new poster with the revised language contained in the regulations. The other, more substantive impact is… Continue Reading

FMLA – What Information is Sufficient to Trigger Employer’s Duty to Follow Up

By Tim K. Garrett on Posted in Leaves of Absence/FMLA Law and Practice

Under the Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”), employers face significant challenges in understanding how much information from an employee is considered sufficient to trigger the employer’s duty to follow up. Courts have routinely found that minimal information will trigger an employer’s duty to ask if the employee needs leave and the corresponding duty to… Continue Reading

Termination Notice Referring to Disability Considered Direct Evidence of Discrimination

By Tim K. Garrett on Posted in Discrimination and Harassment Law and Practice, Leaves of Absence/FMLA Law and Practice

A Tennessee federal judge recently ruled that a termination notice referring to an employee’s “long-term disability” was direct evidence of discrimination and retaliation.  The Court granted the employee judgment as a matter of law under the ADA. The employee, Coffman, had been off work on an extended medical leave.  She had exhausted her FMLA leave… Continue Reading

Employers Beware – “How” You Do Is Often As Material As “What” You Do

By Tim K. Garrett on Posted in Leaves of Absence/FMLA Law and Practice

A recent ruling reinforces that “how” an employer does what it does often is as important as what it does.  The case appeared relatively straightforward.  An employee missed a work shift and claimed intermittent FMLA leave.  One manager, who had been skeptical about some past intermittent leave use, saw the employee at a birthday party… Continue Reading

What Do Tennessee’s Family And/Or Medical Leave Laws Require?

By Lymari Cromwell on Posted in Doing Business in Tennessee, Leaves of Absence/FMLA Law and Practice

Tennessee has a maternity/paternity leave law which permits both male and female full-time employees with 12 consecutive months of service to have four months of unpaid leave for adoption, pregnancy, childbirth and nursing a new infant.  In order for an employee to be covered, the employer must have 100 or more employees on the job… Continue Reading