{"id":3065,"date":"2013-03-05T06:40:46","date_gmt":"2013-03-05T06:40:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dsgordonlaw.com\/dir\/?p=3065"},"modified":"2023-05-20T23:26:45","modified_gmt":"2023-05-20T23:26:45","slug":"does-the-fmla-provide-for-alight-duty-return-to-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dsgordonlaw.com\/dir\/does-the-fmla-provide-for-alight-duty-return-to-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Does the FMLA Provide for a\u201dLight Duty\u201d Return to Work?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Seventh Circuit recently addressed the interplay of FMLA and \u201clight duty\u201d restrictions in&nbsp;<em>James v. Hyatt Regency Chicago<\/em>&nbsp;(7th Cir., 2013).&nbsp;&nbsp; In J<em>ames<\/em>, the plaintiff suffered from a visual condition and subsequent eye injury that prompted surgery and an associated request for Family Medical Leave (FMLA).&nbsp;&nbsp; After&nbsp;his 12 weeks of FMLA expired,&nbsp;the employee&nbsp;requested to return to work in a light duty capacity that would&nbsp;eliminate some&nbsp;essential functions of his position.&nbsp; When the employer could not accommodate his request,&nbsp;the employee&nbsp;nonetheless remained on leave based upon the terms of his union\u2019s collective bargaining agreement.&nbsp; Ultimately,&nbsp;the employee&nbsp;returned to work but still sued under the FMLA, contending that the employer failed to promptly reinstate him in accordance with his physician\u2019s restrictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the conclusion of an FMLA period, the FMLA requires that an employer reinstate&nbsp;the employee to his prior position or&nbsp;\u201can equivalent position with equivalent employment benefits, pay, and other terms and conditions of employment.\u201d The Seventh Circuit affirmed that the FMLA&nbsp;does not require an employer&nbsp;to return an employee to his position if that employee cannot perform an essential function of the job. 29 C.F.R. \u00a7 825.214(b).&nbsp; As otherwise stated, there is no such thing as obligatory light duty under the FMLA.&nbsp;&nbsp; (Note,&nbsp;other laws such as workers\u2019 compensation and ADA statutes may impose different light duty obligations depending on the facts of each individual case.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Seventh Circuit recently addressed the interplay of FMLA and \u201clight duty\u201d restrictions in&nbsp;James v. Hyatt Regency Chicago&nbsp;(7th Cir., 2013).&nbsp;&nbsp; In James, the plaintiff suffered from a visual condition and subsequent eye injury that prompted surgery and an associated request &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/dsgordonlaw.com\/dir\/does-the-fmla-provide-for-alight-duty-return-to-work\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[295],"tags":[296,297,326,325],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsgordonlaw.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3065"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsgordonlaw.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsgordonlaw.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsgordonlaw.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsgordonlaw.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3065"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dsgordonlaw.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3066,"href":"https:\/\/dsgordonlaw.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3065\/revisions\/3066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsgordonlaw.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsgordonlaw.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsgordonlaw.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}