FMLA

The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 - (United States of America)

In 1993, the government passed a federal law that would allow employees to take unpaid, job protected leave, when medical situations arose. This law covered employees that worked in an environment that had a minimum of 50 employees in a 75 mile radius.

To be eligible for FMLA, the employee must work for the company for a minimum of 1250 hours in the previous 12 months to their request and have been employed for at least 1 year prior to their request.

FMLA covers the employee's own serious health condition, a child under the age of 18, spouses and parents serious health condition. See Definition - Serious Health Condition for further information on what constitutes an approvable FMLA Leave. Leaves that do qualify as approvable under the FMLA are granted up to 12 (continuous weeks) of FMLA (or 60 intermittent days) per year.

It is the right of the employer to determine the type of year that the company is on: rolling backwards, rolling forwards and calendar. This will determine when FMLA time will exhaust and when used time will come back to an employee who may have used previous time.

It is the employer's right to force out the payment of benefits during an employee's FMLA leave. This can include, but is not limited to, vacation time, sick time and personal/paid time out.

This law does not take into consideration of any State that may also have a Family Medical Leave in place. If the states that the employee lives in have a Family and Medical Leave in place that offers more to the employee, then it will take place of the Federal Family and Medical Leave. Some states will cover parental in-laws and may have an eligibility requirement that is less than the Federal Family and Medical Leave Act.

Federal Family and Medical Leave will run concurrently with State Family and Medical Leave, except if the employee is a pregnant woman in the state of California. Then she is entitled to medical leave under the Pregnancy Disability Leave Act and the California Family Rights Act.

Employees seeking to use FMLA leave are required to provide 30-day advance notice of the need to take FMLA leave when the need is foreseeable and such notice is practicable. Unless otherwise specified by the employer, documenation that is required to be completed by a health care provider must be completed and returned within 15 days of the request or the request may be denied.

This is not a comprehensive definition of FMLA and an employee wishing to learn more about FMLA and contact their Human Resources representative for additional information.