Job Abandonment
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A pregnant employee is now absent from work for the 4th consecutive day without any notice, call, or any other form of communication. Does this fall under job abandonment which can lead to termination or is it different since she is pregnant? We called her numerous times as well as her emergency contacts and left messages and received nothing. We also noticed that she left her keys in her drawer.
Please help us make sense of this situation. We are located in Florida.
This may be job abandonment, it may be an employee who has quit without notice, or it may be an employee taking FMLA — there is no way to know from the information available.
You are right to be concerned, and our recommendation is that you treat the situation as if the employee had quit without notice. (Especially if she did not routinely leave her keys in her desk at the end of the day.)
However, be aware that under some circumstances you would be obligated to grant FMLA leave to this employee, and to return this employee to her job, once that leave has ended. An employee on intermittent FMLA is required to follow the employers usual call-in procedures in most circumstances. However, there are exceptions for special circumstances. For example, an employee who has a heart attack on the way to work may not be in any condition to call in for several days. Family members may be too distraught to contact the employer, or may simply not know how to reach the employer.
The current FMLA regulations require that an employee be notified in writing of FMLA rights within 5 days of any absence that could be FMLA. Pregnancy is always a serious health condition under FMLA. Our recommendation is that you send this employee FMLA forms by certified mail, return receipt requested. If she returns them completed within 15 days, you may have to grant FMLA. Otherwise, you can treat this situation as if the employee has quit without notice.
Tags: absence, FMLA, pregnancy, quit
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December 9th, 2009 at 5:47 pm
[…] Job Abandonment Human Resource Blog By Caitlin This may be job abandonment, it may be an employee who has quit without notice, or it […]
April 14th, 2010 at 11:34 am
I came across your blog, i think your blog is cool, keep us posting.
April 15th, 2010 at 7:56 am
Thanks for the kind words, free tattoo!~ Caitlin
May 11th, 2010 at 10:38 am
[…] » Job Abandonment Human Resource Blog […]
February 9th, 2011 at 9:55 pm
i resigned from my job in 2009 after I got hurt on the job. I gave my employer a 2 week written notice, i did not say why I was resigning. Now I am trying to colect workers comp and he is saying I abandoned my job. I was hurt. I had taken a bad fall injured my right knee and could barely walk, thats why I quit. I went back to work the very next day. I dont consider this abandonment because i went back and worked for 2 weeks after I was injured. Is my employer right to do this?
February 10th, 2011 at 7:06 am
Hi Susan! No, your employer is not right to do this. If you worked for two weeks after you gave notice, that is definitely not job abandonment.
However, you made a mistake when you quit your job due to a work-related injury. Any employee who is injured should report it immediately and get medical help. Under the law, the employer has to pay for that treatment. You could also have been entitled to compensation for the time you were off.
It is going to look suspicious to any employer when an employee quits, then claims that she was hurt on the job.
Your best bet now is to consult an attorney specializing in workers comp or personal injury cases. If you have a good case, you will be able to find an attorney who will not charge you a fee up front. HTH, and thanks for reading the blogs!!~ Caitlin
February 22nd, 2011 at 10:40 am
Employers are not allowed to take in consideration the condition of an employee when they are being hired and the same applies after they are hired. It is the employees responsibility to file FMLA or Medical leave according to company policy and Federal Law. If this was not an approved time by a Manager or by any applicable law, then this is considered job abandonment and should be handle in the same nature as any other associate. This falls under the guidelines of being fair and consistent
February 22nd, 2011 at 11:31 am
Hi Arnold! Thanks for your comments! We agree that the employees pregnancy should not play a part in any employment decisions. However, we would quibble with your assertion that it is the employees duty to request FMLA. Under the current regulations, the employer must notify the employee in writing within 5 days of his or her rights under FMLA. That notification includes any paperwork the employee must complete. Apparently this employer has not done so.
In rare instances the US DOL has waived the requirement for an employee to follow the employers usual reporting procedures for an absence. For example, an employee who is in a coma may not be required to notify the employer of an absence or to request FMLA. Our suggestion is that the employer consider the employee on FMLA until they learn more about the situation– especially since the employer is aware that this worker has a serious health condition under FMLA. HTH, and thanks for reading the blogs!~ Caitlin
March 31st, 2011 at 3:27 pm
We are in Florida. I have an employee that went to on leave of absence February 8-21. She went to be with her husband in North Carolina while he was working there. When she did not return and did not answer calls we assumed she just quit without notice. Her sister works for us as well. The sister could not contact her either for a while. When the estranged employee finally contacted her sister but not us she informed her sister that her husband did not want her to come back but to stay with him longer & he would not bring her back. We were left with nothing to do in this case. She has now filed for unemployment. I do not know under what grounds she has done this to believe we need to pay. What recourse is best?
March 31st, 2011 at 3:34 pm
Hi Robbie! You should deny unemployment benefits based on the fact that the employee abandoned her job. She was on an unpaid vacation from Feb 8 to 21, and never returned from the vacation. Nor did she ever contact you to say that she would or would not be returning. That is what you should tell the unemployment agency (assuming we understood correctly and this is true.)
As far as we can tell, you were under no obligation to allow this healthy employee to take time off to visit her husband in another state. File this one under “no good deed goes unpunished” and move on.
If the employee is awarded unemployment benefits, you should appeal that decision. HTH, and thanks for reading the blgos!~ Caitlin