Washington Employment Law Letter presents FMLA Master Class
The Advanced Interactive
Workshop for Washington Employers
FMLA Master Class: The Advanced Interactive Workshop for Washington employers is just $347.
Seattle
Thursday, October 22 Grand Hyatt Seattle
721 Pine Street
(206) 774-1234
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.
Thursday, October 22, 2009 - Seattle Grand Hyatt Seattle
Complying with FMLA recently became even more complicated after the DOL made significant revisions. What will the changes mean for Washington employers? Learn what to expect and get answers to ALL your FMLA compliance and policy questions at FMLA Master Class: The Advanced Interactive Workshop for Washington Employers.
It's the perfect way to cement your status as the Family and Medical Leave Act expert at your organization - the one top management turns to for accurate and justifiable personnel policy-making advice. Invest just one information-packed day in learning the very latest management essentials.
You'll learn:
The most critical changes in the new FMLA regs
What recent FMLA court decisions have done to your compliance status
The Family and Medical Leave Act record-keeping error that continues to trip up even the savviest human resource managers
How human resources can tame the intermittent leave and reduced schedule beasts
What to do when FMLA, ADA, and Washington workers’ comp laws overlap
What to expect when an employee’s expecting
How to judge a “serious health condition” the way a real judge would
And more.
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.
CONFERENCE MATERIALS BONUS:When you register for this live event, along with your conference materials you'll receive a Sample FMLA Policy outlining the most critical changes from the DOL. Use this plain-English insert to update your employee policies.
FMLA Master Class for Washington 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 Washington employment law attorneys with years of experience advising employers in FMLA matters. Their firm, Perkins Coie LLP, also edits Washington Employment Law Letter, for years the leading employment law and HR information resource for Washington 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.
SEMINAR FEE: $347 for 1st Attendee ($247 per additional attendee)
Master Class Agenda
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.
7:30 – 8:20 a.m. Registration
8:20 – 8:30 a.m. Welcome and Introductions
8:30 – 9:30 a.m. FMLA Regulations’ Impact on Your Workplace
Regulations issued in late 2008 spell out your rights and duties under the highly technical Family and Medical Leave Act. Sometimes very detailed and sometimes leaving room for interpretation, the regulations are essential to grasp since they affect everything from recognized health conditions and required treatments to your employees’ return to work from leave. In this session, you will:
Get a handle on FMLA notice, including the various new kinds of FMLA notice spelled out in the new regs
Gain greater insight on employees’ serious health conditions through change in medical certification rules
Learn when you can apply your established rules on reporting absences and substituting paid leave for FMLA leave
Receive new guidance on light duty and perfect attendance awards
9:30 – 10:30 a.m. Military Family Leave and Your HR Marching Orders
Under legislation passed in 2008, military families gained the right to take unpaid, job-protected leaves from work to care for service members or to take care of service-related emergencies. To ensure adequate support for service members and their families, the law and related regulations have broadly defined those who may take leave and made more leave time available to care for a seriously ill or injured service member. Your organization is likely to be affected, especially if your employees have family members serving in the National Guard or reserves. The session will cover many topics, and you will:
Learn the eight types of qualifying exigencies that may support a request for leave
Discover the military documents that will always be sufficient certification of the need for leave
Understand who is a soldier’s next of kin for caregiving purposes
How to mesh your regular FMLA calendar with the specialized calendar used for calculating military caregiver leave
10:30 – 10:45 a.m. Break
10:45 – 11:30 a.m. FMLA 911: Serious Health Conditions, Collecting Medical Information
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:
When flu or a cold can be a serious medical condition
How often your employee needs to see a health care provider (and which professionals are considered providers)
What to do if you don’t understand the doctor’s handwriting or terminology on a medical certification
11:30 a.m. – 12:45 p.m. Lunch (on your own)
12:45 – 1:45 p.m. Drawing Lines with FMLA: Curbing Abuse and Preventing Claims
It's tough to decide when an employee has a legitimate problem and when he's gaming the system, especially with family and medical leave. Learn how to deal more effectively with moonlighting while on leave, substance abuse, and other sticky FMLA issues, and gain insight on preventing claims and lawsuits that can drain time and energy from your organization. This session covers:
Setting up the best FMLA calendar for your organization
Counting holidays that fall during leave and running FMLA concurrently with paid leave
Preventing FMLA abuse by applying your own absenteeism policies
Plus, additional tips for curbing abuse
1:45 – 2:45 p.m. Devil’s in the Details: Advanced FMLA Issues
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:
When employees have job reinstatement rights and when they do not
What you must do while employees are on leave, including how to handle tricky benefits issues and also dole out discipline when it's necessary
How to determine FMLA leave rights when spouses work for the same company
How the courts are answering tricky FMLA questions
2:45 – 3:00 p.m.
Break
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 they may be federal, state, or even local measures. You’ll learn:
How FMLA interacts with the Americans with Disabilities Act as amended
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
3:45 – 4:00 p.m. What Happens Next: Future Legislation
Learn what the future may hold for family leave and related legislation, including:
Mandates on paid time off
Expansion of FMLA rights to smaller employers and additional reasons for leave
Local government actions on work-family measures
4:00 – 4:30 p.m. Question & Answer Session
Our experienced attorney presenters will tackle your questions.
SEMINAR FEE: $347 for 1st Attendee ($247 per additional attendee)
Unlike lesser imitators, FMLA Master Class: The Advanced Interactive Workshop for Washington Employers is researched, developed, and presented by Washington 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 Washington.
Dear Washington 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 doctor's notes?
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. You never included a sunset date in your FMLA-leave approval letter. 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, FMLA Master Class: The Advanced Interactive Workshop for Washington Employers. I look forward to seeing you there.
Dan Oswald
President & Publisher Washington Employment Law Letter and Federal Employment Law Insider
SEMINAR FEE: $347 for 1st Attendee ($247 per additional attendee)
Your Workshop Leaders with the Washington
Law Firm of Perkins Coie LLP
Julie Lucht, a partner in the firm's Labor & Employment practice, focuses on employment litigation and counseling. She represents clients in all phases of litigation in defense of numerous types of employment discrimination and other employment-related claims.
She counsels and defends clients in connection with issues and claims arising under WLAD, Title VII, ADEA, ADA, FMLA, FLSA, WARN, NLRA, and related statutory and common law employment claims, as well as drafting employee handbooks, separation and termination agreements, equal employment opportunity policies, sexual harassment policies, employee leave policies, reasonable accommodation policies, and employment contracts.
Andrew Moriarty, a partner in the firm's Labor & Employment practice, focuses on litigation and arbitration involving statutory and common-law labor and employment claims; tort claims, including defamation, tortious interference, misappropriation of trade secrets; and contract claims involving noncompete, nonsolicitation, and other employment and collective bargaining agreements.
Andrew also provides advice and counseling regarding employment contracts, personnel policies and employee handbooks, discipline and discharge, statutory and regulatory compliance, and union avoidance.
Chelsea Dwyer Petersen is a senior associate who focuses her practice on employment counseling and litigation. As a counselor she works closely with clients to create and enforce employment handbooks, policies, and practices that minimize the possibility of litigation and keep businesses working smoothly. She provides efficient advice regarding every-day human resources issues and counsels employers how to comply with federal and state statutes such as the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), Title VII, the Washington Law Against Discrimination, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).
Ms. Petersen frequently investigates and assists in the resolution of complex pre-litigation harassment and discrimination charges internally and before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and state enforcement agencies across the country.
Brian Flock is an associate in the firm's Labor & Employment practice, where he represents employers before state and federal courts and agencies, and advises and counsels employers in a wide array of industries from emerging regional businesses to FORTUNE 500 companies. Brian's practice includes matters involving alleged race, disability, sex and age discrimination and harassment; wage and hour matters; employee hiring and termination; compliance with state and federal leave laws (including the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the Washington Family Leave Act, and the Washington Family Care Act), and , drafting employee handbooks.
Brian also has experience negotiating and drafting employment agreements, separation agreements, and noncompetition agreements. Brian has appeared and argued motions in various courts in Washington, and has engaged in discovery, including the taking and defending of depositions, in matters in Washington and California.
Laura M. Solis is an associate in the firm's Labor & Employment practice. Laura's practice emphasizes employment litigation and counseling for a wide range of clients in areas such as age, race, gender, sexual orientation and disability discrimination, wage and hour issues, and employment contracts.
She also counsels employers on personnel matters. She is a member of the Washington State Bar Association, the King County Bar Association and the Latina/o Bar Association. She has been a mentor for the YWCA GirlsFirst program, and is currently a board member for the Laurel Rubin Farm Worker Justice Project.
Tammy M. Sittnick is an associate in the firm's Labor & Employment practice. Tammy's practice focuses her practice on labor and employment law.
Related employment experience includes:
- Perkins Coie, Bellevue, WA, Summer Associate, 2005
- Judicial Extern to the Hon. John C. Coughenour, United States District Court for the Western District of Washington, Seattle, WA, 2005
- Judicial Extern to Justice Barbara A. Madsen, Washington State Supreme Court, Olympia, WA, 2004
- Washington State Commission on Gender and Social Justice, Seattle, WA, Judicial Extern, 2004
- Bannerman and Associates, Inc., Washington, D.C., Government Relations Consultant, 2000 - 2003
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.
Julie Lucht, a partner in the firm's Labor & Employment practice, focuses on employment litigation and counseling. She represents clients in all phases of litigation in defense of numerous types of employment discrimination and other employment-related claims. 
Andrew Moriarty, a partner in the firm's Labor & Employment practice, focuses on litigation and arbitration involving statutory and common-law labor and employment claims; tort claims, including defamation, tortious interference, misappropriation of trade secrets; and contract claims involving noncompete, nonsolicitation, and other employment and collective bargaining agreements.
Chelsea Dwyer Petersen is a senior associate who focuses her practice on employment counseling and litigation. As a counselor she works closely with clients to create and enforce employment handbooks, policies, and practices that minimize the possibility of litigation and keep businesses working smoothly. She provides efficient advice regarding every-day human resources issues and counsels employers how to comply with federal and state statutes such as the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), Title VII, the Washington Law Against Discrimination, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).
Brian Flock is an associate in the firm's Labor & Employment practice, where he represents employers before state and federal courts and agencies, and advises and counsels employers in a wide array of industries from emerging regional businesses to FORTUNE 500 companies. Brian's practice includes matters involving alleged race, disability, sex and age discrimination and harassment; wage and hour matters; employee hiring and termination; compliance with state and federal leave laws (including the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the Washington Family Leave Act, and the Washington Family Care Act), and , drafting employee handbooks.
Laura M. Solis is an associate in the firm's Labor & Employment practice. Laura's practice emphasizes employment litigation and counseling for a wide range of clients in areas such as age, race, gender, sexual orientation and disability discrimination, wage and hour issues, and employment contracts.
Tammy M. Sittnick is an associate in the firm's Labor & Employment practice. Tammy's practice focuses her practice on labor and employment law.
