Navigating an employee’s return to work after a disability leavecan be complex for your clients. There can be many unknowns,including what questions an employer can ask the employee about hisor her condition, what needs to be put in place for a successfulreturn, and, the No. 1 thing: when can an employee actually beexpected to return to work.

Your clients might also not be aware of the proper course ofaction for determining when or how to help an employee return froma leave of absence. Making things even more complex are themultiple pieces of legislation that affect the way these situationsneed to be handled. Primarily, these include:

• The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) requires employers with more than 50employees to grant an employee with a serious health condition upto 12 weeks of leave to deal with a medical issue.
• Alternatively, the Americans with Disabilities Act AmendmentsAct (ADAAA) requires an employer to provide accommodations, whichmay include extended medical leave, to an employee with a disability to help them in the workplace.

Although both laws need to be considered when navigating anemployee’s return to work, it can still get tricky. When anemployee who is on leave approaches 12 weeks of protected leave,the employer has to make some decisions: Do I approve an extended leave? How are reasonableaccommodations established? Just how does the employer proceed?

As a broker, you can help put your clients on the right path tonavigating an employee’s options for a return from a leave ofabsence by encouraging them to work with their disability carrier.Educating your clients on how a consultant from their disabilityinsurance can help them determine a course of action to put theright solution in place for an employee’s successful return towork.