Anyone been penalized for taking FMLA for their Heart Surgery?

[Heart Of The Sunrise]

During my first week back at work I learned that I will not be paid a significant portion of my pay.
I was paid the commission portion of my pay while I was out on FMLA. Now that I have returned to work I was told
that I will not be paid my commission pay on any purchase orders that came in while I was out on FMLA.
I believe the law states that you return to the same job or equivalent job with all pay and any bonus or incentive pay intact.
There was no written existing company policy in affect while I was out. Now, they claim this is the policy. I have a hard time believing that
this can be legal! It, certainly seems that I am being discriminated against because I took 11 weeks off to have major heart surgery and recover from it!!!!:thumbd:

 

[Bryan B]

When I was out on FMLA leave after my first surgery I did not get paid. I was allowed to use any vacation/sick time I had accrued, but they didn't pay me my salary while I was out. When I came back I had the same job position at the same salary. Did you actually generate the sales revenue before your surgery but the PO came in while you were out? If so I would think you should be paid commission for those. It's really hard to know for sure without knowing your commission structure, but if you're commission is based on individual sales revenue then you didn't generate any revenue while you were on FMLA leave.

 

[Heart Of The Sunrise]

I am an engineer,not a sales person. The commission is a cut of company sales of which I had nothing to do with the generation of.Another portion of the commission is for meeting engineering deadlines.

 

[marc_kowal]

Without knowing the specifics of your commission structure, unless you have a contract that was signed off on by you and your employer, they can change the commission structure if they wish at any time. If you met the engineering deadlines that were given to you, then IMO you should be eligible for that commission. Anything that happened while you were out on leave however, would be tough to make claim to. Best of luck to you.

 

[epstns]

Without knowing the specifics of the company's agreement with you, I would suggest you contact a labor attorney. Some of them will meet with you and discuss your situation without charge, then if there is a case to pursue, there would be fees. Just realize that if you pursue legal remedy, your work life may be negatively affected. They cannot fire you for going after them, but they can make your life at work miserable. Is it worth it? You have to decide.

 

[VegasBAV]

I'm surprised they never had a policy on this before. No one has eer taken FMLA before there? No one has ever had a baby?

FMLA allows employees to take leave "intermittently," i.e. take an unpaid day here and there (or a few hours) when they are too ill to work due to a serious health condition. How does your company handle them being paid commissions. Your best idea here might be to try to talk to other people who have taken time off for illness or unpaid leave and see how the compnay treated them and what they receive and did not receive. compnaie usually try to treat people uniformly and if you can show them that other leave-takers got what you are requesting, they might change their minds.

FMLA is, as a genral rule, unpaid. But if there are benefits/bonuses that everyone gets simply for being "on the payroll" on a certain date, you should get those if you are back to work when the bonuses/commissions are paid.

 

[kimcdougc]

My husband took FMLA for 6 weeks to take care of me because I had the AVR surgery. His company (in the state of WA) has short term disability so he is getting paid the 6 weeks he is off taking care of me. I think this part might just be a state of WA thing. Call your labor and industries and see what they say. Hope it all works out for you.