May an employer transfer an employee to an “alternative position” in order to accommodate intermittent leave or a reduced schedule leave?

intermittent leave or a reduced schedule leave? (a) If an employee needs intermittent leave or leave on a reduced schedule that is foreseeable based on planned medical treatment, including recovery therefrom, for the employee’s serious health condition, for a family member’s serious health condition, for the employee to serve as an organ or bone marrow donor or for a covered servicemember’s, as defined by section 31-51qq-50(a)(1) of the Regulations of Connecticut State Agencies, serious injury or illness, or if the employer agrees to permit intermittent leave or reduced schedule leave for the birth of a child or the placement of a child for adoption or foster care, the employer may require the employee to transfer temporarily, during the period the intermittent or reduced schedule leave is required, to an available alternative position for which the employee is qualified and which better accommodates recurring periods of leave than does the employee’s regular position. (b) The exercise of the authority to transfer an employee to an alternative position, taken pursuant to this section, shall not conflict with any provision of a collective bargaining agreement between such employer and a labor organization which is the collective bargaining representative of the unit of which the employee is a part. In addition, transfer to an alternative position may require compliance with federal and state law, including the ADA and FEPA. Transfer to an alternative position may include altering an existing job to better accommodate the employee’s need for intermittent or reduced schedule leave. (c) The alternative position shall have equivalent pay and benefits. An alternative position for these purposes does not have to have equivalent duties. The employer may increase the pay and benefits of an existing alternative position, so as to make them equivalent to the pay and benefits of the employee’s regular job. The employer may also transfer the employee to a part-time job with the same hourly rate of pay and benefits, provided the employee is not required to take more leave than is medically necessary. For example, an employee desiring to take leave in increments of four (4) hours per day could be transferred to a half-time job, or could remain in the employee’s same job on a part-time schedule, paying the same hourly rate as the employee’s previous job and enjoying the same benefits. The employer may not eliminate benefits which otherwise would not be provided to part-time employees; however, an employer may proportionately reduce benefits such as vacation leave where an employer’s normal practice is to base such benefits on the number of hours worked. (d) An employer may not transfer the employee to an alternative position to discourage the employee from taking leave or otherwise work a hardship on the employee. For example, an employer may not transfer a white collar employee to a position performing manual job duties; an employee working the day shift to a position on the graveyard shift; an employee working in the headquarters facility to a branch a significant distance away from the employee’s normal job location. Any such attempt on the part of the employer to make such a transfer shall be a prohibited act under the FMLA. (e) An employer shall return an employee who has been transferred to an alternative position as a result of taking leave intermittently or on a reduced schedule and who no longer needs to continue on leave and is able to return to full-time work, to the same or equivalent job the employee left when the leave commenced.