Worked while on maternity leave Illinois

[2kidsmom]

I am a remote sales manager in IL working for a NY based company who took 8 weeks of maternity leave. 2 weeks were my vacation and the remaining 6 weeks were unpaid FMLA.

I was asked to work during my time off - answer phone calls from customers/prospects, reply to emails and provide forecasts for what sales were closing while I was off.

Do I have any recourse from my employer to compensate me for the time I was on FMLA? Are there any other violations they may have? Am I in any violation as well?

Thanks!

[Beth3]

Do I have any recourse from my employer to compensate me for the time I was on FMLA? Yes, they must compensate you for your work time. I suggest you discuss this with your employer and see what the two of you can work out. Assuming you are an exempt employee, the easiest thing would be to covert that to an hourly rate (e.g. $50,000/2080 hours per year = $24.04 per hour) and pay you on an hourly basis for the hours you worked.

Are there any other violations they may have? Maybe. If you objected to working while on FMLA and your employer required you to do so anyway, then your employer was in violation of the Act. You are entitled to uninterrupted FMLA time if you so wish.

Am I in any violation as well? Not at all. The Act doesn't prohibit you from working if you chose to.

FYI, you are entitled to 12 weeks of FMLA each calendar year/12 month period. Since you only took eight weeks, your still have an FMLA entitlement of 4 weeks PLUS the time you worked while on leave for the remainder of the calendar year/coming 12 months, depending on how your employer calculates FMLA eligibility.

[2kidsmom]

I see a few challenges:
1. I took FMLA starting 11/8/10 - well at least that's when I started my 2 week "vacation". Is there any "statute of limitations"?
2. To calculate the hrly rate - shall I take my entire W2 from last yr (which includes commission) or just my base salary?
3. Are there other financial penalties they could incur?
4. Being "required" to work when you're in the sales profession is really a given. You're always "on". So yes, I would have truly liked to have been 100% on FMLA but there's a constant pressure to be available. I do have documented emails where my manager asked me for forecast reports while I was out.
5. Regarding negotiating money back from my employer, I know that will be like pulling teeth. I know they will simply not cut me a check to compensate me. Since that is the case, how would I go about receiving my due compensation?

[Beth3]

1. I took FMLA starting 11/8/10 - well at least that's when I started my 2 week "vacation". Is there any "statute of limitations"? Two years. Three years for willful violations on the employer's part but that doesn't appear to be the case here.

2. To calculate the hrly rate - shall I take my entire W2 from last yr (which includes commission) or just my base salary? When calculating exempt employee's hourly rates, I've always just used the employee's base salary. There's no one way to do this however.

3. Are there other financial penalties they could incur? To the employer? Potentially, yes, if you file a complaint with the federal DOL.

4. Being "required" to work when you're in the sales profession is really a given. You're always "on". So yes, I would have truly liked to have been 100% on FMLA but there's a constant pressure to be available. I do have documented emails where my manager asked me for forecast reports while I was out. Ok, but it appears you were willing to do so and didn't request that you have uninterrupted FMLA leave. I don't see a willful violation on the employer's part.

5. Regarding negotiating money back from my employer, I know that will be like pulling teeth. I know they will simply not cut me a check to compensate me. Since that is the case, how would I go about receiving my due compensation? You really need to start by having a dialog with your employer and inform them that you've come to realize you should have been paid for the time you worked while on maternity leave. If they refuse, then your next stop is to file a complain with the federal Department of Labor.

[HRinMA]

I am curious, why did you wait so long before deciding to speak to your company about it?