Have a no-fault attendance policy? Balance that 'hear no evil' approach with FMLA duty.

No-fault attendance programs were designed to treat all absences equally. But the FMLA sometimes requires employers to know the reason for an absence, which can run into trouble with the "hear no evil" approach of no-fault policies.

The Department of Labor recently ruled on a tricky issue related to nofault policies and the FMLA. It said that suspending a worker's accrued no-fault attendance points during his FMLA leave doesn't always run afoul of the law.

The issue: A company's no-fault attendance policy docked points for tardiness or absences. After 18 points, employees were fired. Those points for each absence remained on the employee's record for 12 months.

Employees who took FMLA leave (or workers' comp leave) didn't accrue points while they were out. However, the points they accrued before they went out on leave were frozen during their absence. The result: Some points stayed on their records for longer than 12 months.

The question for the DOL...