What Is FMLA?

What FMLA provides

An eligible employee generally receives:

• Up to 12 workweeks of leave during the employer's designated 12-month period.
• Up to 26 workweeks to care for a qualifying covered servicemember.
• Continued employer-sponsored health insurance under the same terms as if the employee were working.
• Restoration to the same position—or a virtually identical one—when the leave ends.
• Protection against retaliation for requesting or taking legitimate FMLA leave.
• Continuous leave, intermittent leave, or a reduced work schedule when medically necessary.

Who ordinarily qualifies?

For most private-sector employees, all four of these requirements must be satisfied:

1. The employer is covered by FMLA—generally a private employer with at least 50 employees, or a government agency or qualifying school.
2. The employee has worked for that employer for at least 12 months. The months ordinarily do not have to be consecutive.
3. The employee worked at least 1,250 hours during the 12 months immediately before leave begins.
4. The employee works at a location where the employer has at least 50 employees within 75 miles.

Independent contractors ordinarily are not covered because FMLA protects eligible employees.

What situations qualify?

FMLA can generally be used for:

• The birth of a child and bonding during the first year.
• Adoption or foster-care placement and bonding during the first year.
• The employee's serious health condition when it prevents the employee from performing essential job duties.
• Caring for a spouse, child, or parent with a serious health condition.
• Certain needs arising from a spouse, child, or parent's covered military service.
• Caring for a qualifying servicemember with a serious injury or illness.

A “serious health condition” usually involves inpatient care or continuing treatment by a healthcare provider. Ordinary colds, routine medical appointments, and minor conditions do not automatically qualify.

How does someone get paid?

Several possibilities can overlap with FMLA:

When PTO or another paid benefit runs concurrently, the employee does not receive additional weeks. For example, four paid weeks of sick leave designated as FMLA normally use four weeks of the 12-week FMLA allowance.

A person may therefore receive disability payments while the absence is simultaneously protected by FMLA.

How to request FMLA

1. Notify the employer or Human Resources department.
2. If the need is foreseeable, ordinarily provide 30 days' advance notice. If it is unexpected, notify the employer as soon as practical.
3. Provide enough information to show that the absence may qualify. The employee does not necessarily have to use the word “FMLA.”
4. Follow the employer's usual absence-reporting procedures unless an emergency prevents it.
5. If medical certification is requested, return a complete certification—generally within 15 calendar days.
6. Separately apply for any disability, paid-leave, or workers' compensation benefits that may provide income.

The employer generally must notify the employee whether the leave qualifies and is being designated as FMLA leave.

Important conditions

• Employees must generally continue paying their normal portion of health-insurance premiums.
• Medical appointments should be scheduled, when reasonably possible, to minimize workplace disruption.
• Employers may request recertification in certain circumstances.
• A fitness-for-duty statement may be required before returning.
• Bonding leave may be taken intermittently only when the employer agrees; medically necessary intermittent leave does not generally require that agreement.
• FMLA does not protect someone from a legitimate layoff, termination, or disciplinary action that would have occurred regardless of the leave.
• The employer determines how its 12-month FMLA period is calculated, using one of the legally permitted methods.