Adviser Winter 2019-20 LeadingAge New York Adviser LeadingAge NewYork Winter 2019-20 | Page 6

This Is
COOL
Insurance Made Simple
Curbing FMLA and NYS Paid Family
Leave Abuse: A Cautionary Tale
Linette Williams-Grant had a week worthy of Judith Viorst’s classic children’s story
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.
How bad was Linette’s week? It started with her employer’s surveillance of her activities
and ended with her own minister confirming that she had been taking Family and
Medical Leave Act (FMLA) leave once each week to attend a class at church that had
nothing to do with her apparent medical condition.
It’s not that Linette didn’t bring this on herself, but her tale still is a sad one. Yet, it
proves to be good fodder for employers considering whether to investigate suspected
FMLA abuse.
The Facts
Here’s the quick story: Linette worked for Wisconsin Bell as a telecommunications
specialist, which largely is a sedentary position. She also suffered from a host of medical
issues: back pain, hip pain, osteoarthritis, radiculopathy, anxiety, panic disorder and
depression. You name it, and it sounds like Linette had it. These conditions apparently
were particularly difficult during prolonged periods of standing or sitting. According
to her doctor, Linette was unable to work when these conditions flared up, so he
placed her on a generous intermittent FMLA leave cycle. In short, when she had these
conditions, she couldn’t work.
For years, Linette’s FMLA leave didn’t garner too much attention until her supervisor
noticed this: Linette would stop calling in sick whenever she had exhausted her annual
allotment, and she would resume calling in sick and requesting FMLA leave after her
annual FMLA allotment was replenished. Interestingly, her supervisor also learned that
Linette would often check in to determine when her annual FMLA allotment would
replenish. The employer chose not to act now, but rather, it studied Linette’s attendance
patterns for about six months. In those six months, Wisconsin Bell found that Linette
would often use FMLA leave in conjunction with days off or on a weekend (when she
was scheduled to work).
At that point, Ma Bell felt she had enough to ratchet up the review. As a result, it
conducted surveillance on Linette’s activities on two separate days about one month
apart. On the first occasion, she traveled to her church for one hour to “receive prayer,”
as Linette would later explain. (A quick search of a local blog also uncovered that
Linette had been attending weekly classes there at the same time she should have been
at work.) On the second occasion, Linette traveled two hours from her home to a
vacation home where she spent the day.
The Investigation
After surveilling her, Wisconsin Bell confronted Linette with the video surveillance.
When the video showed her walking into the church building, Linette denied any
affiliation with the church or that she attended classes there.
However, after being confronted with the blog entry, she then acknowledged that
she went there on one occasion to “receive prayer.” As to the video of her trip to the
vacation home, Linette claimed she “had no memory” of the trip, which was just a few
weeks earlier.
(See Curbing FMLA on page 6)
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Adviser a publication of LeadingAge New York | Winter 2019-20