FAMILY AND MEDICAL LEAVE ACT (FMLA)

          The Family and Medical Leave Act requires any person, employer, successor employer, or Integrated Employer, engaged in commerce or in any industry or activity affecting commerce who employs 50 or more employees for each working day, determined by whether they appear on payroll (not whether they are compensated) during each of 20 or more (consecutive or non-consecutive) calendar workweeks in the current or preceding calendar year (as determined by calendar, fiscal year (or other fixed year), date of first FMLA leave, or date of any FMLA leave)  to:

1.         provide up to twelve (12) weeks of unpaid leave during any twelve month period for Eligible Employees who have been employed for at least twelve (12) months by the employer and for at least 1,250 hours of service during the previous twelve months preceding the leave who is employed at a worksite where fifty (50) or more employees are employed by the employer within seventy five (75) miles of that worksite due to a Qualifying Event; and,

2.         continue health benefit status as in effect prior to FMLA leave (pay coverage with right to recover  premiums paid if employee fails to return for reasons other than Qualifying Event).  

A Qualifying Event is a:

1.         birth or adoption of a child;

2.         serious health condition (an “illness, injury, impairment, or physical or mental condition that involves inpatient care in a hospital, hospice, or residential medical care facility, or continuing treatment by a   health care provider”) that affects: (a) an employee; or, (b) a spouse, parent, or biological, adopted, foster, stepchild, or legal ward or in loco parentis.

FMLA leave is not:

1.         paid or unpaid leave for anything other than a Qualifying Event;

2.         worker’s compensation leave;

3.         leave stemming from business activities ceasing;

4.         leave due to termination;

5.         more than twelve weeks for a married couple employed by the same employer;

7.         intermittent leave or a leave on a reduced schedule for the birth or placement of a child; or,

8.         leave taken for a serious health condition that is not certified by the employee if certification is requested by the employer, with the certification stating: (a) the date on which the serious health condition arose; (b) the probable duration; (c) the appropriate medical facts within the knowledge of the health care providers regarding the condition; and, (d) that the employee is needed to care for a son, daughter, parent, or spouse, with an estimate of the amount of time that the care will be required.

FMLA leave is:

1.         paid, unpaid, or disability leave;

2.         only twelve weeks (no stacking for multiple events);

3.         holidays (occurring during the week);

4.         concurrent and not sequential with other leave (unless the employer permits it);

5.         intermittent or reduced schedule leave to take care of a sick child; or,

6.         leave wherein the employee provides thirty (30) day notice for the birth of a child or for a foreseeable medical condition based on planned medical treatment

            Notifying the employee as to whether leave constitutes FMLA leave is complex and differs from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Consult counsel.

Copyright 1996 - 2006, McChesney & Dale, P.C.