FMLA Compliance Virtual Summit Agenda

Session 1: Refresher of FMLA Basics

In this opening session, your faculty will provide a crash course on FMLA management basics before diving into the program’s advanced topics. Key learning objectives will include bringing you up to speed on the FMLA’s eligibility requirements, coverage issues, types of FMLA leave, reinstatement issues and benefits requirements.
Speaker: Kara E. Shea

Session 2: New FMLA Regs’ Impact on Your Workplace in 2009 and Beyond

Earlier this year, new final regulations went into effect to clarify a variety of critical FMLA issues -- everything from new notice requirements for employers and employees to new ways of handling unforeseeable leave, the medical certification process, and even perfect attendance awards. Also added were dramatic new military family leave requirements and an almost entirely new vernacular and system to manage such leave. And, believe it or not, the changes may not be over. Some states and even Congress have discussed providing mandatory paid leave. Find out what you need to know to manage the slew of enforcement challenges that the FMLA changes have brought about.

Key Learning Benefits:

• Review of the new FMLA regulations and status report on additional proposed regulatory and statutory changes
• Impact of new leave options for military families
• Update on new state medical leave laws
• Review of possible paid sick leave laws pending in Congress

Speaker: Kara E. Shea

Session 3: How to Put the Brakes on FMLA’s Paper Chase

Keeping up with FMLA’s exhausting paper trail ranks as one of HR’s most frustrating challenges. FMLA imposes a variety of notice requirements, from general information that must be provided to all employees to very specific information required in order to deny FMLA leave. In this session, we’ll tackle the root cause of frustration that many have with the FMLA and provide a common-sense, step-by-step approach for managing its maze of notice and paperwork requirements. Special attention will be paid to the new notice requirements imposed by the new FMLA regulations and the new forms created by the DOL.

Key Learning Benefits:

• Update your employee handbook regarding the FMLA, including a new compliant policy that you can use as a template
• Getting a handle on what paperwork to send out, and when
• How to designate FMLA leave effectively – and what to do if you neglect to do so
• Dealing with employees who don’t provide adequate notice (i.e., insufficient information or untimely notice)
• Handling medical certifications and recertifications
• Managing fitness for duty certificates

Speaker: Stacie Caraway

Session 4: How FMLA Interacts With An Employer’s Leave and Attendance Policies

The DOL has provided substantial guidance to aid employers in understanding the interaction of FMLA leave with paid leave and attendance policies. Are you up to speed on these regulations, old and new? Find out how to manage this potentially tricky relationship and learn how to blend FMLA leave with your company’s leave and attendance policies.

Key Learning Benefits:

• Interaction between paid and unpaid leave polices and the FMLA – when can you REQUIRE someone to take FMLA leave, when must it be paid, and more.
• Policies and procedures required in order to run FMLA leave concurrently with paid leave
• Interaction of workers’ compensation and disability benefits and FMLA leave
• No-fault attendance policies and FMLA leave
• Pitfalls of imposing employee discipline and termination based on absences that may be FMLA-covered
• When Title VII and FMLA prohibit certain discriminatory leave policies

Speakers:Kara E. Shea, Stacie L. Caraway, and John B. Phillips, Jr.

Session 5: When FMLA Intersects With Substance Abuse and Mental Health Issues

Administering FMLA leave can be particularly difficult when an employee suffers from a mental or emotional condition or has a substance abuse problem. Because employees frequently try to hide the existence of such conditions, your only notice that they need FMLA leave may be their conduct, attendance, or performance problems. In this session, you will hear advice for handling these sensitive issues without being accused of discrimination or privacy violations.

Key Learning Benefits:

• What mental conditions and substance abuse problems qualify as serious health conditions
• How to address FMLA leave in situations where mental health or substance abuse is the issue
• Juxtaposition with the ADA — is an interactive process required or even permitted under FMLA?
• How employers should handle communications with family members in these delicate circumstances

Speakers: Kara E. Shea, Stacie L. Caraway, and John B. Phillips, Jr.

Session 6: When FMLA is “In the Picture” -- How to Properly Apply FMLA to An Employee’s Leave Request

Because employees don’t always know they’re entitled to FMLA leave, they won’t necessarily come up to you and announce, “I have a serious health condition for which I need to take 60 days of FMLA leave.” Yet in many circumstances, HR will be considered to have received “notice” that an employee needs FMLA leave - even if he or she didn’t directly request it. This is just one of the complexities behind this law, and this session will clear up the confusion that HR has when it comes to applying the FMLA to an employee’s leave request -- even if the words “family and medical leave” are never uttered.

Key Learning Benefits:

• Understanding the six definitions of “serious health condition” in the new regs and other qualifying reasons for leave
• Recognizing the employer’s duty to inquire further when an employee is absent for a reason that may be FMLA-protected, including:
  -- Does the employee or a family member have a serious health condition?
  -- Is the absence related to a family member’s military service?
  -- Does the FMLA apply to employees who are adopting?
• Understanding challenging employee eligibility issues, including:
  -- Employees who return from USERRA leave that may be immediately eligible for FMLA leave
  -- Employees who have been recently reemployed after a substantial break
  -- How to apply the 1,250 hours worked requirement to exempt employees — who don’t typically track their time

Speakers: Kara E. Shea, Stacie L. Caraway, and John B. Phillips, Jr.

Session 7: Pushing Back on FMLA: Dealing With Employees Who Manipulate the System

A big problem that you may face in FMLA compliance is knowing when to say, “Enough is enough.” You want to give employees all the leave to which they are entitled, and most employees want nothing more than that. But what do you do about those who abuse the system? Like the migraine sufferer who always takes intermittent FMLA leave on a Friday or Monday? The employee who works another job while on leave for back surgery? This session addresses these and other scenarios to show how far employers can go in dealing with FMLA’s habitual abusers - without getting into legal hot water.

Key Learning Benefits:

• Dealing with employees who abuse FMLA leave
• Handling suspicious or incomplete paperwork
• Managing intermittent leave challenges
• Responding to an employee who has no leave left but still needs more time off

Speakers: Kara E. Shea, Stacie L. Caraway, and John B. Phillips, Jr.

Session 8: Your Tough FMLA Questions Answered

Perplexed by an unusual FMLA leave request? Don’t know how to respond to the problem employee who requests leave right before you were planning to fire him? Need expert guidance on reconciling FMLA leave with pregnancy leave? Exasperated by the prospect of learning new rules and regulations and wondering how you’re going to stay compliant with all of the changes? Well, there’s good news for the FMLA weary, because this final session gives you the forum to have your FMLA questions answered. You and your fellow attendees will control the session and the content. Our panel of experts will answer your FMLA questions and help you master the intricacies of the federal leave law. Our expert panel is ready to help tackle your toughest FMLA challenges.
Speakers: Kara E. Shea, Stacie L. Caraway & John B. Phillips, Jr.

Your Workshop Leaders...

Stacie L. Caraway is Of Counsel at the firm Miller & Martin and concentrates her practice in the areas of labor and employment. Ms. Caraway is currently part of a regional civil litigation team, which advises national franchises and other companies concerning general employment and labor law issues; and develops, reviews, and updates human resource policies, supporting contracts and materials. She also represents these companies in all local, state and federal legal proceedings including labor arbitrations, EEOC and state human rights commission investigations, settlement mediations and lawsuits throughout the United States.

Nationally-acclaimed attorney, author, and speaker John B. Phillips, Jr. is Partner at the firm Miller & Martin. He has also served as VP and Deputy General Counsel for Labor & Employment with Coca-Cola Enterprises, and has worked hand-in-hand with HR professionals across the country in making difficult employment decisions day-in and day-out.

Mr. Phillips is also the host of HR Hero’s latest DVD training program, “Executive Summary: Employment Law for the C-Suite,” and leads customized workplace issues seminars for senior managers. He is the author of two books on employment law and has written numerous articles for a variety of business and HR publications. He is listed in “The Best Lawyers in America” for labor and employment. His engaging and clear delivery, coupled with a deep understanding of key employment law issues, has made him an in-demand speaker and trainer in a variety of corporate settings.

Kara E. Shea is a Partner at the firm Miller & Martin and provides practical advice on employment issues and compliance to national, regional, and local employers of all sizes, ranging from Fortune 500 companies to small businesses, in a variety of industries. She also represents employers before administrative agencies such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and in litigation, including discrimination, retaliatory discharge, whistleblower, and wage and hour cases, including class actions. Ms. Shea has briefed cases presented to both the Tennessee Supreme Court and the United States Supreme Court.

Ms. Shea regularly speaks on employment-related topics and provides supervisory training on topics including FMLA and FLSA compliance, conducting workplace investigations, and implementing employee discipline. Ms. Shea has also been a regular columnist for the Nashville City Paper and is the co-editor of the Tennessee Employment Law Letter.