Human Resource Blog

Rules and rights of small business less than 15 employees regardig hiring and firing

Recently a 2 months pregnant employee abruptly quit her job due to an open disability certified by her ob gyn physician with no mention of a possible future date for returning , and as a small emloyer with less than 10 emloyees we had to reinstate a previous emloyee who recently quit due to change in carreer in order to fill in the hours for the comin 2 or 3 months. Two months later the first emloyee requested reinstitution of her full 36 hours as of december 2 of 09 we offrered her 22 hour to start as she was unable to perform her full duties in the last two weeks prior to her departure and that due to having complication with her pregnancy instead se hired a lawer and started threatening what are our rights as small emloyer?

It sounds like the inmates are running the asylum here — meaning you are letting employees control your business, rather than you controlling your business.

No, the federal FMLA does not apply to an employer with less than 50 employees. (State laws might apply, but you neglect to tell us which state you are in.) There is no legal requirement that employers in most states offer additional leave other than FMLA.

And in any case, this employee apparently quit — she did not ask for or receive FMLA. You are under no obligation whatsoever to allow this employee to return to work, unless you want to. If you decide to rehire her, you should treat her as a new employee — not reinstate her with full benefits.

You say that you were forced to reinstate a previous employee — but you are never forced to do anything. You can always go out and hire a new employee. Especially in this economy, it should not be hard to find qualified people to fill positions. If you have a system in place for hiring and training new employees, it is not even a big deal.

If you allow this employee to return, we can almost guarantee that you will have constant problems from her. You have led her to believe that she can dictate the working arrangements to you. Let her get a lawyer — she really does not have a case, so only the most unethical lawyer would take her as a client.