2010 FMLA Master Class for Illinois Employers is just $347.
Chicago
Wednesday, November 3 Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council
222 South Riverside Plaza,
Suite 1900
(312) 906-6000
Complete Pricing:
$347 for 1st Attendee
$247 per additional attendee
The use of this seal is not an endorsement by HRCI of the quality of the program. It means that this program has met HRCIs criteria to be pre-approved for recertification credit.
CREDIT INFORMATION: This program has been approved for 6.25 recertification credit hours through the HR Certification Institute. For more information about certification or recertification, please visit the HR Certification Institute website at www.hrci.org.
Cancellation Policy:
A $50 processing fee applies to all conference cancellations.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010 - Chicago Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council
The Family and Medical Leave Act has been a part of the workplace for more than a decade, so it’s gotten easier for HR to administer, right? Not so. Confusing regulations, coupled with numerous recent changes at both the legislative and regulatory levels and conflicting court decisions, ensure that FMLA continues to be one of the biggest compliance headaches for employers.
Now, from the publisher of Illinois Employment Law Letter comes the fast, cost-effective and engaging solution: 2010 FMLA Master Class for Illinois Employers: Overcoming Compliance and Employee Leave Challenges.
Invest just one day to become even more proficient in FMLA administration and handle top management’s and your employees’ questions with even greater confidence. You'll get the very latest compliance tactics and you'll enhance your advanced practitioner skill set when you attend this satisfaction-guaranteed event.
You'll learn:
The latest expansion, so you don’t risk noncompliance
What recent FMLA court decisions really mean, so you can adjust your policies accordingly
Why FMLA record-keeping continues to trip up even the savviest human resource managers, and effective solutions to avoid similar mistakes
How to tame the intermittent leave and reduced schedule beasts, and put a stop to abuse and fraud
How FMLA, ADA, and your state's leave and workers’ comp laws overlap, so you don’t violate any statute
What to expect when an employee’s expecting, so you can balance your business needs with her personal requirements, all within the spirit and letter of the law
How to judge a “serious health condition” the way a real judge would, and eliminate disputes about what does and doesn’t constitute it
And more. See your full AGENDA below.
Conference Details
Continental breakfast and registration begin at 7:30 a.m. The program begins at 8:30 a.m. and concludes at 4:30 p.m. There will be morning and afternoon breaks and registrants will be on their own for lunch.
FMLA Master Class for Illinois Employers features:
Lively Give and Take: Unlike some seminars, you’re encouraged to ask questions, present your own situations for discussion, and interact with both the speaker and your colleagues.
Quality Presenters: Your speakers are Illinois employment law attorneys with years of experience advising employers in FMLA matters. Their firm, Ford & Harrison LLP, also edits Illinois Employment Law Letter, for years the leading employment law and HR information resource for Indiana employers.
Top-Level Issues: No beginners course, this one-day program tackles the very latest, most confusing, most complicated FMLA situations and gives you a clear road map to consistently executing professional and confident administration of the law.
Satisfaction Guarantee: You’re entitled to a complete refund if you’re in any way less than delighted by this program.
Attend this lively one-day event and acquire the skills, comprehensive understanding, and confidence to make both case-by-case and strategic FMLA decisions that withstand the toughest scrutiny. You’ll arm yourself and your organization against the growing tide of FMLA related lawsuits. Most of all, you’ll be ready to treat your employees fairly, consistently, and fully within both the letter and the spirit of federal and state law.
Master FMLA administration in just one day by participating in this all-new program created just for Illinois employers and HR management.
SEMINAR FEE: $347 for 1st Attendee ($247 per additional attendee)
Master Class Agenda
This power-packed program kicks off at 8:30 a.m. and concludes promptly at 4:30 p.m.
Built into the schedule are morning and afternoon breaks and a lunch break.
Registration
7:30 – 8:30 a.m.
Welcome and Introductions
8:30 a.m.-8:40 a.m.
What Happens Next: Future Legislation
8:40 a.m.-9:30 a.m.
Learn what the future may hold for family leave and related legislation, including:
Proposals to apply FMLA to cover employers that have fewer employees
Proposed expansion of FMLA leave entitlements to additional employees, including same-sex spouses and domestic partners, parents-in-law, grandparents, siblings, and adult children
Possible new reasons for FMLA leave, including parental involvement leave, predeployment and post-deployment military family leave, and domestic violence leave
Proposals to undo many of the changes to the FMLA regulations issued in 2008
Several different pending proposals for mandatory paid sick leave
Military Family Leave and Your HR Marching Orders
9:30 a.m.-10:30 a.m.
Under legislation passed in 2008, military families gained the right to take unpaid, jobprotected leaves from work to care for seriously ill or injured servicemembers (military caregiver leave) or handle emergencies arising out of their active duty military service (qualifying exigency leave). In October 2009, additional legislation was passed that broadened even further the criteria for employees to take both types of leave. Your organization is likely to be affected if you have employees with family members serving in the regular armed forces, National Guard, or military reserves.
The session will cover many topics surrounding military leave, and you will:
Be brought up to date on the new situations in which employees may take qualifying exigency and military caregiver leave
Discover the military documents that will always be sufficient certification of the need for leave
Learn how the rules regarding documentation and verification of military family leave differ from other types of FMLA leave
Understand who is a soldier’s “next of kin” for caregiving purposes
Learn about the special rules regarding how to track military caregiver leave
Understand how much leave spouses are entitled to take when they both work for you
Break
10:30 a.m.-10:45 a.m.
FMLA 911: Serious Health Conditions, Collecting Medical Information
10:45 a.m.-11:30 a.m.
At the heart of most FMLA leave is an employee or family member’s serious health condition. FMLA regulations offer guidance and allow you to require medical certification, but the possible reasons for needing FMLA leave are endless. Assessing the information requires keen judgment, and this session will show you how to make these crucial calls. You’ll learn:
How the criteria for serious health conditions changed under the 2008 regulations
How to determine whether an employee with the flu or a cold has a serious health condition
How often your employee needs to see a health care provider
Which professionals may provide medical certification under FMLA
What to do if a medical certification is incomplete or unclear
When you may require employees to provide recertifi cations of their serious health condition
Lunch (on your own)
11:30 a.m.-12:45 p.m.
Drawing Lines with FMLA: Meeting Notification Deadlines, Curbing Abuse, and Preventing Claims
12:45 p.m.-1:45 p.m.
FMLA is ruled by timelines for giving and receiving information, for measuring how much leave has been taken and how much employees still have remaining in a given FMLA year. A good grasp of timing rules – and learning how to monitor other key areas of FMLA usage – can help you prevent abuse of FMLA entitlements and fend off litigation. This session covers:
How to give the four kinds of FMLA notice — on time and on point
Selecting the best type of FMLA leave year for your organization
Counting holidays that fall during leave
Preventing FMLA abuse by applying your own absenteeism policies — and how to administer those policies without running afoul of FMLA
How to investigate possible FMLA abuse or fraud
How to legally terminate employees who are on or just returned from FMLA leave
Devil’s in the Details: Advanced FMLA Issues
1:45 p.m.-2:45 p.m.
It’s one thing to grasp individual FMLA rules and another to put the pieces together in the real world. What happens when employees fail to follow your absenteeism policies, which you’re allowed to apply when they want to take FMLA leave? Is a light-duty job consistent with FMLA rights? This session will help you learn:
The rules regarding substitution of various different types of paid leave for FMLA leave
When employees have job reinstatement rights and when they do not
How to determine FMLA leave rights when spouses work for the same company
How to mesh your regular FMLA leave year with the specialized calendar used for calculating military caregiver leave
How the courts are interpreting the 2008 FMLA regulations and answering other tricky FMLA questions
Break
2:45 p.m.-3:00 p.m.
3:00 – 3:45 p.m. All Together Now: Coordinating FMLA with ADA, Workers’ Comp, and State Family Leave Laws
FMLA seems pretty comprehensive, but it’s not the only law that applies when employees need time off for their own serious health condition, to care for other family members, or for the other situations that FMLA covers. You need to know when other laws may give you greater responsibilities – and how their requirements work in tandem with FMLA’s. You’ll learn:
Why FMLA serious health conditions are more likely to qualify as disabilities under recent changes to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
When you should offer leave as a reasonable accommodation under the ADA
How to offer accommodations other than leave without violating the FMLA
What you must do to comply with HIPAA privacy requirements when seeking medical certification of FMLA leave
When you can follow workers’ compensation rules on FMLA information gathering
When you can require employees to take FMLA leave concurrently with workers’ comp leave
Final Questions and Closing
4:00 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
Our experienced attorney presenters will tackle your toughest compliance and administrative questions!
SEMINAR FEE: $347 for 1st Attendee ($247 per additional attendee)
Unlike lesser imitators, 2010 FMLA Master Class for Illinois Employers is researched, developed, and presented by Illinois authorities on leave law. This isn’t a cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all program thrown together by some barnstorming “expert” who’ll be three states away before you realize you learned nothing. This is valuable, in-state guidance from trained and highly respected attorneys who practice in Illinois.
Dear Illinois Executive:
Courts have issued conflicting and confusing decisions as different
circuits rule on individual cases. How would you handle these
situations?
Scenario 1: You have an employee, out for 6 weeks on consecutive FMLA leave, now back part time. You have her initial doctor’s certification for surgery and a recent doctor’s note saying she can come back, with hours increasing as she can tolerate. Should you close her consecutive leave and start a new intermittent FMLA leave, or just convert it? Do you need a new doctor’s certification? How often should you ask for proof of ongoing fitness-for-duty?
Scenario 2: One of your supervisors receives an e-mail from an employee stating that he has an alcohol-addiction problem and won’t be in until he completes treatment. You want to alert the employee to his FMLA rights, but you haven’t been able to learn more about his projected recovery plan. What should you do to uncover the information you need?
Scenario 3: An employee is on week 11 of FMLA leave when top management realizes that the company can operate without her position. What should you do?
Clearly, FMLA presents more compliance headaches than almost any other law affecting the workplace. Yet the penalties for errors, noncompliance, and mismanagement can be severe. That’s why I urge you to register right now, absolutely risk free, for the powerful one-day immersion in this issue, 2010 FMLA Master Class for Illinois Employers: Overcoming Compliance and Employee Leave Challenges. I look forward to seeing you there.
Dan Oswald
President & Publisher Illinois Employment Law Letter and Federal Employment Law Insider
SEMINAR FEE: $347 for 1st Attendee ($247 per additional attendee)
Your Workshop Leaders with the Illinois
Law Firm of Ford & Harrison LLP
Partner at the firm's Chicago office, Steven Brenneman brings over 20 years of experience representing clients in the full range of employment and labor law matters. He advises and provides preventive counseling to clients on a wide range of issues affecting the employment relationship, including EEO issues, wage and hour issues, FMLA matters, employee handbooks and personnel policies, reductions in force, covenants against competition, affirmative action obligations and strategies for employee discipline and termination.
He regularly practices in the trial and appellate levels of federal and state courts, as well as administrative agencies. Steve produces excellent results in a cost-effective manner while handling a broad range of employment and labor disputes, including cases involving allegations of age, race, national origin, disability, sex discrimination, sexual and racial harassment, retaliation, fraud, defamation, negligent supervision and retention and breach of contract. He also handles claims involving the FLSA, ERISA, the WARN Act, employee handbooks, drug testing, misappropriation of trade secrets, and non-competition agreements. Steve has represented employers in labor arbitrations and labor injunction litigation. His efforts have yielded favorable results in many reported decisions.
Steve speaks regularly at seminars and to trade groups on employment law topics. Earlier in his career he served as a Trial Attorney for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's Chicago District Office.
Suheily Natal focuses her practice on representing management in labor and employment law matters. In her practice, Suheily handles matters involving allegations of sexual harassment, disability discrimination, FMLA violations, race and national origin discrimination, wrongful discharge, and violation of wage and hour and wage payment laws. She also drafts and reviews employment policies, employment contracts and employee handbooks.
Prior to joining Ford & Harrison, Suheily worked as an associate in the employment litigation group of a Chicago area law firm. During law school, she received the CALI Award for Academic Excellence for Pre-Trial Drafting and Civil Litigation. Suheily is fluent in spoken Spanish. She also serves on the Auxiliary Board of the Community Mental Health Council.
SEMINAR FEE: $347 for 1st Attendee ($247 per additional attendee)
The use of this seal is not an endorsement by HRCI of the quality of the program. It means that this program has met HRCIs criteria to be pre-approved for recertification credit.
Partner at the firm's Chicago office, Steven Brenneman brings over 20 years of experience representing clients in the full range of employment and labor law matters. He advises and provides preventive counseling to clients on a wide range of issues affecting the employment relationship, including EEO issues, wage and hour issues, FMLA matters, employee handbooks and personnel policies, reductions in force, covenants against competition, affirmative action obligations and strategies for employee discipline and termination.
Suheily Natal focuses her practice on representing management in labor and employment law matters. In her practice, Suheily handles matters involving allegations of sexual harassment, disability discrimination, FMLA violations, race and national origin discrimination, wrongful discharge, and violation of wage and hour and wage payment laws. She also drafts and reviews employment policies, employment contracts and employee handbooks.
