Challenges in Managing Unplanned Intermittent Leave in the Senior Living and Long-Term Care Workplace

One of the biggest challenges for employers in the health care world is managing unplanned intermittent leave. Providing care 24 hours a day in a senior living or long-term care environment makes this particularly difficult.

 

Pursuant to the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), an eligible employee may take up to 12 weeks of leave in a 12-month period for a number of reasons, including the employee’s own serious health condition or the serious health condition of a parent, child or spouse. For a full time employee, that equates to 60 work days, and if it is taken in smaller increments, an employee can have frequent absences that can be very disruptive. Using a rolling 12-month period to measure leave entitlement, as many employers do, further complicates the management of intermittent leave, as employees who want to game the system will be aware of when they have more FMLA coming to them. Further, while an employer may temporarily transfer an employee who needs intermittent or reduced work schedule leave to another position that better accommodates the absences, that is only applicable to absences for planned medical treatment. In most cases, those who abuse intermittent leave are taking off for incapacity, i.e., the inability to work, not for planned medical treatment.