Employees in New Mexico have some questions about whether employers are legally obliged to “hold their job open” while they are on FMLA leave.  The federal FMLA law stipulates that an employee will be returned to his or her previous job, or to a position that is equal to the former job in terms of benefits, salary, and working conditions.

FMLA does not require employers to hold jobs open.  The federal government does not expect companies to sacrifice their level of customer service, or work production, because an employee goes out on leave.  The law simply expects for employees to be returned to the same or a similar job.  During the time period where an employee is absent, the employer may fill that gap in whatever manner he or she wishes.

For those employers that have multiple employees performing the same job, it might be simpler to have the remaining employees cover for the absent one.  In cases of high turnover rates, it might be wiser to hire an additional employee.

Another option would be to use the services of a temp agency.  These agencies provide temporary workers for short-term assignments.  An employer might also choose to hire someone else permanently, with the understanding that that individual will be placed in another job when the employee that is on leave returns to work.

Some positions are a bit more complicated, and may involve a lot of responsibility.  For these types of jobs, employers might prefer to temporarily promote someone from within their organization to fulfill the duties of the job.  The temporarily promoted employee, of course, would need to understand that when the absent employee returns from leave, he or she would go back to their previous position.  This is actually a great opportunity for the temporarily promoted employee, as it allows him or her to build on their resume, and to gain valuable experience.

Last 10 posts by Tamara

• Louisiana Employee Privacy Act - April 20th, 2011
• FMLA 101 – Mississippi Maternity Leave - April 19th, 2011
• Florida Overtime Update - April 18th, 2011
• Delaware Paid Holidays - April 15th, 2011
• North Carolina Employee Privacy Act - April 14th, 2011
• Wisconsin NLRA Poster Requirement - April 13th, 2011
• Ohio Maternity Leave - April 12th, 2011
• Georgia Overtime Update - April 11th, 2011
• Oklahoma Paid Holidays - April 8th, 2011
• Maryland Overtime Per Diem Update - April 7th, 2011

This entry was posted on Monday, December 24th, 2007 at 2:18 pm and is filed under Business Laws, Employment Laws for Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.