My company wants to offer a promotion to an employee that recently went on FMLA. Should the date of the promotion and raise begin at the start of the next pay period, or when she returns from FMLA in 12 weeks?
Rita Risser Chai Replies:
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, it is illegal to use an employee’s use of FMLA leave as a negative factor in employment actions, such as promotions. We couldn’t find any cases on it, and if you usually give the pay increase when the person actually starts in the new position, you can wait until she comes back and starts actually performing the job. But, legally, you can always be more generous, in which case the answer would be to date the promotion in the next pay period. What a nice surprise that will be for the employee during this time when they need all the support they can get.
Posted 02-24-2020
Information here is correct at the time it is posted. Case decisions cited here may be reversed. Please do not rely on this information without consulting an attorney first.
