Five Detroit police officers have filed a lawsuit challenging a department policy that forces pregnant officers to go on sick leave as soon as their supervisors find out they’re pregnant.

Just when you thought you had mastered the intricacies of the FMLA, employees and their lawyers have come up with a new trick that could trip you. This one involves how employers calculate attendance under no-fault absenteeism programs.

Employers sometimes come up with some very specific rules for when and how employees must call in to let their bosses know they will miss work. Sometimes those rules become contracts ...

Q. Does an employee have to say that she wants to “take FMLA leave” in order to satisfy the requirement that she notify her employer of her “intent to take leave”? What must an employee tell an employer to preserve her right to take FMLA leave?

The U.S. Labor Department is set to implement the first major revision of the FMLA since the law was passed in 1993. If approved, the proposed changes could help employers administer the complex 15-year-old law and avoid lawsuits. But the proposal carries a few extra burdens for employers, too.

Anxiety about the economy and job prospects may adversely affect some employees, especially those prone to stress-related illnesses or whose physical problems flare up when working long hours. As a result, you may see an increase in requests for FMLA leave. Be careful not to criticize employees for trying to exercise their FMLA rights ...

Employees who take intermittent leave can wreak havoc with work schedules. Because their conditions can flare up at any time, their absences are by nature unpredictable. But there are ways you can legally curtail intermittent leave. One way is to use the calendar-year method to set FMLA leave eligibility.

Q. We have an employee who failed to return from an FMLA leave of absence. During the leave, we had been paying our customary share of her medical insurance premiums. Is there anything we can do to recoup the expenses we paid for this employee?

With a Democratic-controlled Congress, President-elect Barack Obama will likely push for several key employment law priorities, including simplifying union organizing and expanding FMLA coverage.

Q. One of our employees hurt her back lifting boxes. She has been off work for several weeks. We have been counting her absence against her FMLA entitlement. She was scheduled to return to work recently, but she now tells us the healing will take longer than expected. December is our busiest time of the year! Must we continue giving her leave?       

Q. We have an employee on FMLA leave. Can we replace her and find a different job for her when she returns? 

With a Democratic-controlled Congress, President-elect Barack Obama will likely push for these employment law priorities ...

Q. We are a large company and are dealing with a situation with a sick store manager. He has used up all his FMLA leave and is still not able to return to work. Can we safely terminate his employment now?

The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA) grants service members re-employment rights when they notify their employers of their intent to return to work after being released from active duty. But what happens when an employer finds that its business needs have changed while the employee was on active duty? ...

Purdue University implemented a new parental leave policy in October that grants paid time off to either parent for a birth or adoption. The policy provides up to six weeks of paid leave for the birth mother and up to three weeks for the father of the child or same-sex domestic partner of the birth mother ...