Human Resource Blog

Exempt Status

Can an employee return from FMLA as exempt status, and work only 20 hours per week when the required hours are 40 hours a week. This person has a release from the doctor and it states she can only work 4 hours per day for the next six weeks.Is there anything we can do such as drop her to part-time status until she gets a full release or should she ever returned without a full release from her doctor?

Yes, an employee can return from FMLA & then take intermittent leave & still retain his or her exempt status.

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) allows qualified employees to take continuous leave and/or intermittent leave for serious health conditions. If this employee still has FMLA leave available, you will simply need to change her status from continuous FMLA leave to intermittent FMLA, and record the four hours of absent time each day as intermittent FMLA.

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) does permit employers to deduct time from an exempt employee’s pay for leave taken under FMLA. In fact, although there are several other acceptable reasons to deduct from an exempt employee’s pay, FMLA is the only one that allows deductions for partial-day absences.

Additionally, FMLA regulations prohibit employers from requiring employees to take more FMLA leave than is necessary, so you cannot require this employee to stay out of work until she can work 40 hours per week, rather than granting the 20 hrs per week FMLA leave she has requested.