The Essential Guide to Family & Medical Leave

140 | the essential guide to family and medical leave
Your Company’s Leave Notification Rules
Your company is also allowed to require employees requesting FMLA leave
to comply with its leave notification rules, as long as the rules:
• are reasonable
• don’t require more of employees seeking FMLA leave than is required of
employees seeking other types of leave, and
• don’t conflict with FMLA rights.
Lessons from the
Real World
An employee doesn’t have to give advance
notice to substitute paid vacation time for
emergency FMLA leave.
Sandra Solovey worked for Wyoming Valley Health Care System—Hospital
as an emergency room nurse. Solovey’s father was receiving hospice care.
On June 23, 2003, Solovey left work early after hearing that her father had
taken a turn for the worse. Solovey returned to work briefly on June 26, then
left again to be with her father. Her father died on June 28. In total, Solovey
missed three full, and two partial, days of work.
Solovey and the hospital agreed that her time off qualified as FMLA leave.
The hospital deemed two of the days Solovey took off to be “family ill” days
and paid her for that time. However, the hospital refused to allow Solovey to
use vacation time for the remainder of her time off. The collective bargaining
agreement between the nurses’ union and the hospital required nurses to
give two weeks’ notice before using vacation time; because Solovey didn’t
give any notice, the hospital didn’t allow her to substitute vacation time for
her FMLA leave.
The court ruled in favor of Solovey. The FMLA allows employees to
substitute paid vacation time for unpaid FMLA leave, and it allows employees
to take leave for unforeseeable reasons. Requiring Solovey to give two weeks’
notice when she was unable to do so effectively deprived her of the right to
substitute vacation time and so violated her rights under the FMLA.
Solovey v. Wyoming Valley Health Care System—Hospital, 396 F. Supp.2d
534 (M.D. Penn. 2005).