teto jackson
09-26-2005, 07:23 PM
My wife resides and works in Louisiana. She works for a fairly large insurance company. She went out on Maternity leave on August 20, 2005 due to a scheduled c-section. She delivered the baby. Both are doing fine. Her Dr. has fully released her from his care.
On the date that she left, she was assigned to an FLMA counselor. From what I understand, the counselor is not employed by her company, but is essentially working through an outside contract that she has with the company.
My wife has used her short term disability, and is now using her earned vacation time to stay home and bond with my son. As per the FMLA counselor, she has until 10/20/05(would be a total of 3 months) before she runs out of FMLA time. She initially did not intend to use all of it, but is now having second thoughts. Her plan was to go into work three times a week while still on FMLA to get some of her work done, and to get acclimated to the lifestyle changes associated with doing the job and caring for the baby. She feels that by doing this, it would slowly wean her away from our son enough to be able to work full time again.She called her manager first to propose the above mentioned plan. The manager immediately explained to her that the company has a very strict policy about FMLA and that he was not allowed to speak with her about anything because she is pregnant and on FMLA. He then referred her to the counselor who stated that any arrangement like the above would have to be approved by my manager.
She called the manager and he stated that he could not allow the plan. He stated that her options were to either relinquish the FMLA and come back to work, or take the entire 12 weeks of FMLA.
I essentially have 2 questions. Does anyone know why any company would have a strict policy that would not allow managers to speak with their employees when they are on FMLA? The second question is why would an employer not allow an employee to wean themselves back into the job like she proposed?
I am assuming that there is some employment law out there that may be able to give a good explanation. Thank you
On the date that she left, she was assigned to an FLMA counselor. From what I understand, the counselor is not employed by her company, but is essentially working through an outside contract that she has with the company.
My wife has used her short term disability, and is now using her earned vacation time to stay home and bond with my son. As per the FMLA counselor, she has until 10/20/05(would be a total of 3 months) before she runs out of FMLA time. She initially did not intend to use all of it, but is now having second thoughts. Her plan was to go into work three times a week while still on FMLA to get some of her work done, and to get acclimated to the lifestyle changes associated with doing the job and caring for the baby. She feels that by doing this, it would slowly wean her away from our son enough to be able to work full time again.She called her manager first to propose the above mentioned plan. The manager immediately explained to her that the company has a very strict policy about FMLA and that he was not allowed to speak with her about anything because she is pregnant and on FMLA. He then referred her to the counselor who stated that any arrangement like the above would have to be approved by my manager.
She called the manager and he stated that he could not allow the plan. He stated that her options were to either relinquish the FMLA and come back to work, or take the entire 12 weeks of FMLA.
I essentially have 2 questions. Does anyone know why any company would have a strict policy that would not allow managers to speak with their employees when they are on FMLA? The second question is why would an employer not allow an employee to wean themselves back into the job like she proposed?
I am assuming that there is some employment law out there that may be able to give a good explanation. Thank you
