Michigan
I work for a company with 42 full and part-time staff members as well as 6 physicians.
A 5 year employee was in an auto accident on 9/22/04. Her partner called to inform me of the accident, said she was fine but was going to get checked out anyway. She called the next day to say she didn't have any broken bones or whiplash but she was sore and wouldn't be back to work until 10/4/04. She called again on 9/30/04 and said she wouldn't be back until 10/11/04. On 10/1/04 she brought a disability certificate from her chiropractor saying she couldn't come back to work until 10/25/04. On 10/25/04 she submitted another disability certificate signed by her chiropractor saying she was disabled until 11/08/04. Today she faxed over yet another certificate saying she will be off until 11/24/04. We have had other employees off for extended periords for legitimate medical leaves with no problems. I have felt from the beginning that this medical leave is not legitimate but I don't have any concrete reason for feeling this way except that this employee has not seen a regular MD or DO for this disability, just her chiropracter which she was seeing on a regular basis previous to this accident. My employers are very generous and provide full health coverage at no cost to the employee. I stongly feel that they are being taken advantage of in this situation. Is there anything I can do?

Because of the size of your employer, there is no legal requirement to provide a medical leave of absence. My suggestion is that the employer give the person the same amount of time with the same requirements for documentation as with any other employee. (FMLA requires that employers with 50 or more employees in a 75 mile radius offer persons who have worked at least 1250 hours over the past year a guaranteed leave of up to 12 weeks off.)

It sounds like you are not the person who is managing this person. My suggestion is that you go to the Office Manager or whomever is responsible for the administration of the office. Express your concerns. It is then the management's responsibility to take care of the matter. If that person wishes for assistance in approaching this situation, let him/her know of the laborlawtalk.com forum. I can assist with advice.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Thank you for your reply.
I know there is no legal requirment to provide medical leave, but our personnel manual states: the corporation "may grant , at their discretion, approved leave for up to 6 weeks without pay for medical/maternity reasons. An employee who fails to report to work when scheduled at the end of the approved medical/maternity leave will be deemed to have voluntarily resigned." We have allowed other employees to extend leave beyond 6 weeks.
I am the practice manager and am responsible for these matters but the physicians have not always followed policy and procedure when employees have gone directly to them for medical leave approval. Do we have to extend this employees leave beyond 6 weeks if she has a chiropractors disability certificate?
Can we require the employee in question to get a second opinion from an MD or DO?

If it has been your practice that a leave must be certified by an MD, then you may request an opinion from an MD. Let me know if you have any other questions.