Supplemental materials for LEAP 2025 session Structuring Pay with Confidence: Transparency, Equity and Audits
Memo
Re: Employment Law—Basic Training
When one of your employees requests time off because of a health condition or to care for a family member’s health problem, managers need to know whether that leave may qualify under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).
The law allows qualified employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave each year for the birth or adoption of a child, to care for their own “serious” health condition or to care for an immediate family member who has a serious condition.
Employees don’t specifically need to say they “need FMLA leave.” It’s the duty of the organization (and the manager) to identify leave requests that may qualify as job-protected FMLA leave. If you suspect a leave request may qualify, notify HR right away.
Here are more specifics on the law:
Which employees are eligible?
To be eligible for unpaid leave, employees must have worked for the organization for at least 12 months and logged at least 1,250 hours of service in those 12 months (slightly more than 24 hours per week).
How much leave is allowed?
The FMLA says eligible employees can take up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave during a 12-month period. The law refers to unpaid leave; it doesn’t require paid leave.
Eligible leave doesn’t have to come in one-week or even one-day chunks. The law allows some employees to take “intermittent” FMLA leave, which can be for several hours or less.
What’s an ‘illegal’ manager action?
You cannot prohibit eligible employees from taking FMLA leave. Nor are you allowed to consider a person’s previous FMLA leave as a negative factor in any employment action, such as hiring, firing, promotion or discipline. Never voice complaints about a person’s medical leave.
After FMLA leave is over, employees must be able to return to the same or an equivalent position with equal pay, benefits and perks. The new position must involve the same or substantially similar duties, responsibilities and authority. Employees on FMLA leave continue to earn health benefits.
What reasons qualify for leave?
Qualified employees are allowed to take FMLA leave for any of these reasons:
Military families can use FMLA for various reasons, including before and after an overseas deployment.
What is considered a ‘serious’ health condition?
That’s a tricky one. Basically, the law defines a “serious condition” as one that requires in-patient hospital care or causes a three-day incapacity with continuing treatment by a doctor.
That can include everything from heart attacks to back injuries to injuries resulting from accidents. Pregnancy, morning sickness and prenatal care also qualify. Employers also have the right to demand medical certification from a doctor to decide if a condition qualifies.
Advice: Managers should bring the issue to HR’s attention whenever they suspect an ailment might qualify.
Must employees notify you?
If employees can foresee their need for FMLA leave—say in a pregnancy—they must give you at least 30 days’ advance notice. When FMLA leave is not foreseeable, they need to inform you as soon as it’s practical, which typically means one or two business days.
Remember, employees don’t need to mention FMLA as long as they provide enough information to decide that the leave qualifies. In short, the burden is on employers to recognize that leave may qualify.
The FMLA at a glance
FMLA allows eligible employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave each year for the following reasons:
— Care for the employee's child after birth, adoption or foster care.
— Care for the employee's spouse, child or parent who has a "serious" health condition.
— For the employee's own "serious" health condition that makes the employee unable to perform his or her job.
Interested in joining HR Employment Law Advisor? For a limited time, LEAP 2025 attendees can get an annual membership at 30% off at https://www.hremploymentlawadvisor.com/leap30.
