The Essential Guide to Family & Medical Leave

180 | the essential guide to family and medical leave
reschedule leave. If you decide not to allow the employee to take leave on
the dates requested, you should tell the employee right away so he or she can
make appropriate arrangements.
Caution
Raise scheduling issues in writing, with the individual notice form. If you
decide to postpone or reschedule the employee’s leave, let the employee
know when you provide the individual notice form. That form doesn’t
explicitly address this subject, but it does indicate the dates when the
employee requested leave. If you provide the notice form without telling
the employee that you aren’t granting leave for the exact dates the
employee requested, the employee will be understandably confused—and
will make plans based on his or her original request. The best practice is
to put your scheduling decision in writing and attach it to the individual
notice form, then discuss it with the employee.
Postponing the Start of Leave
As explained in Chapter 7, employees must give 30 days’ advance notice
if they need leave for a foreseeable reason. Examples of foreseeable leave
include time off for scheduled, nonemergency surgery; for the birth or
adoption of a child; or to care for a family member who has treatment
scheduled well in advance. An employee who can’t give 30 days’ notice of
foreseeable leave—for example, because the employee learned of the need
for leave only a few weeks ahead of time—must give as much notice as is
practicable under the circumstances. If the employee fails to give this notice,
you can delay the start of the employee’s leave until 30 days have passed since
the employee gave notice.
Caution
You can delay the start of an employee’s leave only if you have informed
the employee of the duty to provide the notice required under the FMLA.
This information should be included in your company’s written FMLA
policy and in workplace FMLA posters, as explained in Chapter 2.