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By: Jeff Nowak

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Jeff Nowak

Latest from FMLA Insights

Imagine receiving an FMLA medical certification from your employee, Dan, that has his handwriting all over it except for the physician’s signature. Your fraud radar is screaming, so you want to confirm directly with his doctor whether this document is legit.

But before you can call his doctor to authenticate the document, imagine further that the law requires you first to allow Dan the opportunity to fix his certification and return a new or updated one to you.

That is what one court said.

Thankfully, this past week, another court put a stop to that kind of nonsense.

The Facts…
Continue Reading Is an Employer Required to Allow an Employee to “Cure” a Seemingly Fraudulent FMLA Medical Certification?

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Russ, a bus driver, takes medical leave from work on 24 different occasions without following the employer’s call-in procedure, and then preemptively provides medical certification from a local chiropractor who is known to churn out FMLA medical certifications like a grandparent who generously dishes out candy to the grandkids. The third-party leave administrator (TPA) for the employer smelled a rat, since this chiropractor was well known to provide FMLA medical certification with unusual frequency and often wandered outside his area of expertise. This raised enough concern to trigger a second opinion, as…
Continue Reading How Does an Employer Respond to an Employee Who Fails to Cooperate with the FMLA Second- or Third-Opinion Process (or Fails to Follow Call-in Procedures)?

Pope Leo XIV | Credit: Vatican Media

Every once in a while, my worlds collide in the most unexpected ways.As a management-side employment attorney, I spend my days in the weeds of the FMLA and ADA. Certifications. Intermittent leave. The interactive process. Reasonable accommodations. You know, the stuff that gets our collective hearts racing.Based on my commentary from time to time, readers of this blog also may recall that I care deeply about my Catholic faith.So imagine my delight, ahem, bordering on disbelief, when I learned that Pope Leo recently took time to meet with the Italian Order of Employment…
Continue Reading What Can Pope Leo Teach Us About Being Good Managers of People?

Every HR pro knows this little workplace miracle.Just as your office or plant is winding down for Memorial Day—or some other prime-time long weekend—boom: your employee’s chronic condition suddenly flares up like a Roman candle.What timing.A total and complete coincidence, right?Enter Andrew, who worked as a conductor for CSX Railroad and a chap whose story I highlighted at my recent FMLA & ADA Master Class [see recording details below].Andrew’s FMLA leave (coincidentally) clustered around holidays, and CSX relied in part on that holiday timing and broader aggregate statistics to support its suspicion that something was amiss.Like so many employers, especially…
Continue Reading When FMLA Has Impeccable Timing Around a Holiday, This is What Employers Shouldn’t Do.

There are many holidays I cherish — Christmas, Fourth of July, even St. Paddy’s Day. But my favorite day of the year? There is no competition. The arrival of the American Bar Association’s summary of every FMLA case decided this past year.Yep, you read that correctly.  Every little scrumptious FMLA decision. About mid-February or so, the ABA’s Wage and Hour Committee publishes a comprehensive report of all FMLA decisions handed down by the federal courts in the previous year.  Although our little FMLA blog catches some of the big FMLA cases as they occur throughout the year, the ABA’s annual report includes all…
Continue Reading Pinch Me! The ABA’s Summary of 2025 FMLA Court Decisions Is Now Available.

Your employee, Thelma, has requested FMLA leave to take her mom, Louise, to regular doctor appointments. Though the appointment itself will take one hour, Thelma wants to schedule it in the middle of the workday and for a total of five hours. The travel, she says, takes “quite a bit of time . . . and it’s none of your business.”Beginning 2026 a little salty, we see?Naturally, you’re frustrated, since you sense that Thelma purposefully encouraged that appointment for midday, and in any event, there’s no way this doc is two hours each way! The medical appointment itself clearly is…
Continue Reading Is Travel Time to and from a Medical Appointment Covered by the FMLA?

Another year in the books—hope 2025 was a big win for your team!For some, and hopefully all of you, you are ready to pay out year-end bonuses as the final pennies are counted for the year. In the meantime, however, you’ve debated with your bean counters whether you can prorate or deny of a bonus to an employee who has taken, let’s say, 10 weeks of FMLA leave this year. Ten weeks of FMLA leave seems like a lot. And it probably impacted the number of gold-plated widgets your employee made this year. So, can you prorate or even deny…
Continue Reading As You Prepare Payment on Those Year-End Bonuses and Wonder Whether You Pay the Guy Who Took FMLA Leave, Read This First

Today is my birthday! Yay for me! To celebrate, I am inviting you to a five-day FMLA & ADA Party!This ain’t no joke. Join me for five days (13-hours!) at an interactive master class that will have you singing FMLA and ADA from the mountaintops! What’s in Store?Think case studies, real-world examples, 2025 – 2026 case law, and yes – plenty of corny Jeff/dad humor. By the end, you’ll master the critical components of the FMLA and ADA and become more comfortable with managing an employee with a medical condition.Due to popular demand, I have added a fifth day to this…
Continue Reading Join Me for My Annual FMLA & ADA Master Class: The 2026 Edition!

Join me for my annual FMLA/ADA webinar, which comes to you, as always, free of charge. This year’s webinar focuses on how employers can proactively guard against misuse of FMLA and ADA leave. And there will be singing, plenty of singing.When: Thursday, December 11, 2025 (12:00 – 1:15 p.m. central time)Online registration: Click hereThe reasons for (suspicious use of) FMLA leave get more creative each year.  Like the guy who said he was helping his wife at home with IVF treatments…but the employer knew his wife wasn’t at home. We’ll tell you about him and how they knew he…
Continue Reading Join Me for a Webinar: “It’s Not Called the Friday and Monday Leave Act! Effective Ways to Protect your Organization Against Misuse of FMLA and ADA Leave”

John always sat in the same spot in the same pew, positioned about 50 feet from the side entrance of the church. Deep in prayer, a rosary wrapped around his left hand, John would lift his head and turn toward me as I entered that side door every Friday morning. With a slight nod of his head and a warm smile, he made me feel welcome. That’s all it took. A nod and a smile.For the past six months, John has been noticeably absent from Friday morning Mass. Last week, we received the difficult news, as the priest announced that…
Continue Reading When an Employee Requests Leave from Work, It’s Easy to Respond with Cynicism. Next Time, Respond with Kindness.

Yesterday, the US Department of Labor resurrected its Payroll Audit Independent Determination (PAID) program, which encourages employers to own up to potential minimum wage and overtime violations under the Fair Labor Standards Act and resolve them at an early opportunity.

For the first time in history, the DOL is extending this program to potential violations under the Family and Medical Leave Act as well.

As several of my Littler colleagues explain in this thorough analysis, the PAID program is summarized in a couple steps:

  • The Employer conducts a self-audit to identify potential FLSA or FMLA violations.
  • The Employer then

…
Continue Reading The DOL is Asking Employers to Self-Report FMLA Violations to the Federal Government. Will Even One Employer Take the Bait?

There must be something in the water in EmployerLand, USA.

On multiple occasions lately, employers have confessed frustration to me with the lack of information provided by an employee’s physician in an FMLA medical certification or in support of an ADA accommodation.

But their next line is always troubling: “So, Jeff, I just picked up the phone and called the doctor directly with a few of our questions about the form.”

[Cringe]

Friends, whether it’s an FMLA or ADA situation, employers must follow very specific rules when communicating directly with an employee’s physician about the employee’s medical condition. They start…
Continue Reading Employers, Before You Pick Up the Phone to Call an Employer’s Physician, Put it on Hold

Here’s a story about Dyamond, who will forever impact the manner in which you review FMLA medical certification.

If this teaser doesn’t have you on the edge of your seat, nothing in this little FMLA blog will.

Dyamond’s Story

Dyamond worked at an assisted living facility run by the State of Illinois (DHS), and she became pregnant. It was a difficult first trimester for Dyamond, who was absent several days due to morning sickness associated with her pregnancy. When she missed five workdays in a bit more than a week due to reported morning sickness, DHS provided her FMLA notices…
Continue Reading If You Review FMLA Medical Certification as Part of Your Job, You Need to Read this Post!

A funny thing happened as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Employers everywhere sent their employees home to work, many of whom will work forever more out of their home or remote worksite, never to see the Company headquarters again.

Coming out of the pandemic, some employers have drastically scaled back their brick-and-mortar headquarters. Others have ditched the company HQ, replacing it with a modest store front or even a Post Office Box. [All you Gen Z peeps: if you are wondering what a “Post Office box” is, ask your parents!]

As remote work cements itself into the fabric of…
Continue Reading Is Your Remote Employee Eligible for FMLA Leave When Working from Home?

What are we craving right now?

The Rule of Law!

Let me tell you, the American Bar Association delivered this past week!

Every spring, the ABA’s Labor and Employment Section Wage and Hour Committee publishes a comprehensive report of FMLA decisions handed down by the federal courts in the previous year. Although our little FMLA blog catches some of the key FMLA cases as they occur throughout the year, the ABA’s annual report includes every FMLA decision issued in the 12-month period ending October 31, 2024.

Every. Single. One. Of. Them.

This year’s report was just released and can be accessed here …
Continue Reading A Winter Treat! The ABA’s Summary of 2024 FMLA Court Decisions Has Arrived.

Week after week, it seems, a new city or state enacts its own paid leave law of some sort.

For employers obligated to comply with the federal FMLA and these local leave laws, it’s death by a thousand paper cuts.

These paid leave laws come in all shapes and sizes. Many of them permit leave for circumstances that may be qualifying FMLA leave reasons as well. Some define qualifying family members more broadly than the FMLA (e.g., grandparents or parents-in-law). Some provide leave for a different set of health conditions, and others provide a leave period longer or shorter than…
Continue Reading DOL Sheds Light on Administering FMLA Leave When an Absence Triggers Both FMLA and State Paid Leave Laws