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If an employee is on FMLA leave and receives reasonable accommodations, then undergoes another separate procedure before that 12 weeks ends, what are the employer’s obligations to hold that position or provide more accommodations?

As the PUMP Act approaches its third anniversary, lawsuits are piling up. A recent big win for a new mother highlights what happens if employers don’t accommodate pumping and then punish that worker when she takes unauthorized pumping breaks.

The PWFA allows expecting workers to miss work for OB/GYN appointments and such. Does that mean they do not have to use PTO or vacation time for missing work as well?

If a staff member is submitting FMLA paperwork months prior to their due date, do we still need to then submit a letter within five days?

We have an employee who was seen by her physician, diagnosed with COVID and was taken off work for five days. We have her doctor’s note, and we provided her FMLA paperwork as soon as we were notified, but she is refusing to have the FMLA certification completed. Does this qualify as FMLA (under serious health condition), and can we still designate this as FMLA without signed paperwork?

Two Department of Labor opinion letters—one from 2023 and one issued in October 2025—clarify how to calculate how many hours of FMLA leave an employee is eligible for.

We have an employee who has intermittent FMLA leave for migraines. She’s pregnant and calling off for morning sickness. Can we just chalk her time up as FMLA for migraines?

I have an employee who for two years has obtained an intermittent-leave certification for leave of a continuous period of two weeks. I just ask her doctor for the amount of time she needs off, but I’m fairly certain she is taking this as a vacation based on her social media postings. What else can I require of her doctor?

When considering how many hours an employee is ordinarily working: How do you figure the ordinary working hours of an exempt employee whose actual work is on an as-needed basis and often exceeds standard in-office hours to the point that the employer doesn’t even know for sure how much time that exempt worker is working?

September is National Recovery Month, highlighting the work being done to help Americans recover from often-devastating addictions to drugs and alcohol. It’s a good time to review your policies on detecting, preventing and eliminating drug abuse in the workplace to make sure you’re doing so the legal way.