The Essential Guide to Family & Medical Leave

166 | the essential guide to family and medical leave
on the form, didn’t sign and date it, or didn’t indicate the duration of the
employee’s condition, you should let the employee know what the problem is
and give the employee time to hand in a complete certification.
This is another situation in which the best practice is to work with the
employee to get the paperwork done. Tell the employee what’s wrong with
the certification form, give the employee another copy of the form (if
necessary), and don’t take any action until the employee has had enough
time to get the corrected certification back to you.
Lessons from the
Real World
An employer can’t deny leave based on inadequate
medical certification if it doesn’t give the employee
a chance to correct it.
Curtis Sims drove a bus for the Alameda-Contra Costa County Transit
District (AC Transit) for 25 years. Starting April 18, 1994, he took a couple
of weeks off work because of a back injury. He went to two doctors and a
chiropractor during this time and was prescribed medication and physical
therapy. He returned to work on May 4 and handed in three medical slips,
one from each provider. Together, the doctor’s slips said he was unable to
work through May 1; the chiropractor’s slip said he could return to work on
a trial basis on May 4.
AC Transit placed Sims on a five-day, unpaid suspension following this
absence. In July Sims took two days off for an illness and was fired.
Sims sued, claiming that his FMLA rights were violated when AC Transit
counted his April absence against him. AC Transit argued that Sims was not
protected by the FMLA because, among other things, the chiropractor did
not qualify as a health care provider, and therefore the last two days of Sims’
absence were not FMLA-protected. The court found that AC Transit might
be right, but it didn’t matter: Because AC Transit didn’t tell Sims what was
wrong with his certification and give him an opportunity to correct it, they
couldn’t deny him FMLA leave based on that deficiency.
Sims v. Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District, 2 F.Supp.2d 1253 (N.D. Cal.
1998).