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Family and Medical Leave Act

Posted in Employee Rights

You can be the most ideal employee in your organization, but if you do not balance your career as well as your family and personal needs, you would end up working too hard to the point that it is not worth it.  If a family member is seriously ill, for instance, you need to leave work and attend to his or her needs.  But what does the Federal Law say about leaving work for family and medical reasons?

About the FMLA

Passed by Congress in 1993, the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) requires certain employers to give their employees up to 12 weeks off every year to care for a family member who is seriously ill, recuperate from a serious illness, or take care of a newborn or a foster/ newly-adopted child.  Also, these workers have the right to return to work on the same or equivalent position.  However, according to the FMLA, all leaves are unpaid.

Qualifications

Employees are entitled for a family or medical leave covered by the FMLA if these conditions are met:  the employer has more than 50 employees who work within a 75-mile radius; the employee has worked at least 12 months; and the worker has been on the job for more than 1,250 hours for 12 months before the leave.

However, the FMLA allows employees to take a leave only for specified reasons as not every personal or family emergency is covered for a FMLA leave.  For instance, if you become a new parent or foster parent, you can only take the leave within a year after the child is born or placed in your household.  You are also allowed to leave to attend to a family member (or to yourself) suffering from a serious health problem.  These health issues should render that relative-or you-to unable to perform normal activities for three days while under the care of a doctor.

Reinstatement

Employers who allow a FMLA leave to their employees should reinstate most employees to the same or equivalent positions they held before going on leave, as well as provide their workers with continued health insurance during the leave period, and allow employees to take a paid time off during unpaid FMLA leave under certain circumstances.

Scheduling and notice requirements

Federal law requires employees to submit their intention for leave at least 30 days before the date of their intended leave if it is foreseeable.  This is often the case if the employee plans to temporarily leave office for the birth or adoption of a child or to take care of family members who are recovering from surgery or other planned medical treatment.

However, if the need for leave is not foreseeable, employees are required to give early notice, depending on the circumstances.  Medical emergency, for instance, might not be possible for workers to give any advance notice, but they need to notify the employer as soon as they are able to do so.

Employees can also take the leave intermittently rather than all at once, which is useful for several cases such as taking care for a spouse who receives periodic treatments like chemotherapy.  However, taking intermittent leaves for the birth or adoption of a new child is not allowed, but the employer may agree to do so.