She resigned, then took FMLA...?

[Audarah]

I have a question. I was recently hired to take over for a woman. She wrote a resignation letter saying that she was going to leave the company on September 2nd. She had told my employer that she was moving to another state and going to take a position in another state because her allergies in Pennsylvania were too severe.

She was to train me until September 2nd. I started on August 3rd. By the 10th, she had called off. She called off from the 10th to the 13th. On the 14th she came in for a few hours and left. On the 15th, she filed for FMLA and her return date is in October. No one understands why she would file for FMLA considering she put in her resignation and we no longer know which one comes first.

The FMLA is unpaid.

Help? They dont want to hire her back. They want to hire me and considering she resigned they think they dont have to hold the position open after September 2nd but arent sure.

[hr for me]

The employer needs to speak with legal counsel. Part of the response might depend on precedents set. Do they or have they allowed other employees (non-FMLA related) to rescind resignations? If so, they would probably in this case have to do so also. If not, it could possibly be considered FMLA retaliation to treat her differently.

This is one reason why some employers don't allow employees to stay through their whole notice period. But it sounds like they needed to keep her to train you. And it doesn't seem they were very vigilant at the beginning of the month on her absences there.

There is a possibility she is still resigning and just trying to protect her time from August through 9/2 for some reason (pension plan/401k vesting, health care coverage, etc) The doctor filling out the FMLA form would have been the one to put the return date probably and so the employer needs to confirm with the employee about her resignation date. But again, I would check with legal counsel prior to doing so; that way the employer knows its options.