I work for a large, well-known residential and commercial security company in their contact center, have been with the company for over five years.
I have an FMLA claim to take care of a dependent, under 18 child with serious health conditions for which I'm entitled to "intermittently" take three days off a week for flare-ups on top of one day a month for appointments, as certified by my child's doctor and certified by the company's claim administrator. I've had my claim since 2015, of course re-certifying every six months or as needed and have everything exactly the same as it was in beginning when I first started it.
Last month was pretty bad as far as flare ups, so I used Thursday, Friday and the following Monday through Thursday, with Thursday being an appointment day. Our process for reporting time away from work as FMLA is calling or using our administrator's online site, of course I use the online site. Reported all six days and all six days were approved. I come back to work and my manager asks me if I've been notified by HR to re-certify. I didn't think much about it, three days alter the claims admin sent me an email stating "Your continuous leave documents are ready", mind you this was three days after my manager asked me if I received any sort of notification for re-cert and within that three days the paperwork was never showing online to be completed. I didn't request "continuous" leave as what I used is well within what I'm allotted to use. Got my child's doctor to fill out the paperwork and few days later after submitting it back to the claims admin, it was denied and subsequently all six days were added to my unscheduled time and caused me to be put on a "final notice" which is the last step before getting the boot. Mind you, the claims admin approved all six days, then within a few days it was all reversed pending approval of the continuous leave I never asked for. Spoke with our payroll coordinator whom enters all FMLA reported leave into our schedules...she tells me it's the claims admin process that if I take "certain amount of leave" that they "handle it a little differently". Pretty much blames the claims admin. Complained to the claims admin, she then leaves me a voicemail stating it was nothing of their doing and was "your employer policy that anything over four days requires re-certification as continuous". At this point it's a finger pointing game.
Two weeks pass, I had to again use six days in a row, this time without using any appointment day. It got approved by claims admin and sat approved for a good six days, then reversed and completely gone from my FMLA leave calendar. No notice, no reason given. At this point, it's clear the claims admin has nothing to do with any policy on their side for how I use FMLA time. I also reviewed my company's FMLA Policy which was recently up dated a few months ago and this so called policy for needing to re-certify due to taking more than four days of consecutive FMLA leave is NOW WHERE IN THERE AT ALL.
At this point, I'm on my way out because of all the FMLA time turning in unscheduled time, and with the second time my reported leave was denied, that pushes me out the door. I feel like I should take legal action. Any insight?
I have an FMLA claim to take care of a dependent, under 18 child with serious health conditions for which I'm entitled to "intermittently" take three days off a week for flare-ups on top of one day a month for appointments, as certified by my child's doctor and certified by the company's claim administrator. I've had my claim since 2015, of course re-certifying every six months or as needed and have everything exactly the same as it was in beginning when I first started it.
Last month was pretty bad as far as flare ups, so I used Thursday, Friday and the following Monday through Thursday, with Thursday being an appointment day. Our process for reporting time away from work as FMLA is calling or using our administrator's online site, of course I use the online site. Reported all six days and all six days were approved. I come back to work and my manager asks me if I've been notified by HR to re-certify. I didn't think much about it, three days alter the claims admin sent me an email stating "Your continuous leave documents are ready", mind you this was three days after my manager asked me if I received any sort of notification for re-cert and within that three days the paperwork was never showing online to be completed. I didn't request "continuous" leave as what I used is well within what I'm allotted to use. Got my child's doctor to fill out the paperwork and few days later after submitting it back to the claims admin, it was denied and subsequently all six days were added to my unscheduled time and caused me to be put on a "final notice" which is the last step before getting the boot. Mind you, the claims admin approved all six days, then within a few days it was all reversed pending approval of the continuous leave I never asked for. Spoke with our payroll coordinator whom enters all FMLA reported leave into our schedules...she tells me it's the claims admin process that if I take "certain amount of leave" that they "handle it a little differently". Pretty much blames the claims admin. Complained to the claims admin, she then leaves me a voicemail stating it was nothing of their doing and was "your employer policy that anything over four days requires re-certification as continuous". At this point it's a finger pointing game.
Two weeks pass, I had to again use six days in a row, this time without using any appointment day. It got approved by claims admin and sat approved for a good six days, then reversed and completely gone from my FMLA leave calendar. No notice, no reason given. At this point, it's clear the claims admin has nothing to do with any policy on their side for how I use FMLA time. I also reviewed my company's FMLA Policy which was recently up dated a few months ago and this so called policy for needing to re-certify due to taking more than four days of consecutive FMLA leave is NOW WHERE IN THERE AT ALL.
At this point, I'm on my way out because of all the FMLA time turning in unscheduled time, and with the second time my reported leave was denied, that pushes me out the door. I feel like I should take legal action. Any insight?