The Intricacies of FMLA

Are you a working parent who sometimes needs to take time off your job to take care of your sick child, spouse or parent? Then you must be well informed about the intricacies of the Family and Medical Leave Act or (FMLA).

In 1993, the federal government enacted the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) as a law intended to assist employees in balancing their responsibilities at work and their responsibilities with family and personal health.

The FMLA have a set guideline on who can be eligible for availing the said absence benefits. These benefits may reach up to 12 weeks of leave without pay but with definite job restoration and health benefits.

Do you want to know if you can be eligible under the FMLA? First, your company must be eligible, too.

Organizations can become subject to this federal law if they are categorized as a private sector and they have 50 employees or more. Government or public sector agencies with any number of employees are eligible to be subject to the FMLA, too.

Meanwhile, you can be covered by the FMLA if you have been in your company for 12 months in the least or have been working for 1250 hours in the least for the previous 12 months. You can also be eligible for FMLA if you are working within 75 miles of a work site employing 50 employees or more. Moreover, you have not used up the 12 weeks allowed leave under the FMLA in the past 12 months.

The leaves of work you can avail under the FMLA have several types. You can file for leave on several grounds:

1. Birth and caring of a child

2. Placing of a foster or adoptive child in the home

3. Your health conditions are becoming serious

4. An immediate member of the family has grave health conditions.

The FMLA has period calculations. An employer has four choices in the matter of determining the 12 months period of an employee.

- Base from calendar year

- 12 months leave year that may be based on his employee’s anniversary at work or the fiscal year being followed by the company

- Period of 12 months by counting forward from the exact date when the first FMLA of an employer began

- “Rolling" period of 12 months period measuring backward by the date the employee used the FMLA leave.

The leave hours you can avail during the period of 12 weeks would depend on your status.

- If you are a full timer, you can be eligible to 480 hours FMLA leave or 40 hours every week for 12 weeks.

- If you are a part-timer, then you can be eligible for a prorated amount of time off. This will be based on your number of scheduled hours every week.

If you are already married and both you and your spouse are working under the same organization then your FMLA leave may be limited to the collective sum of 12 weeks. This is if your leave is because of the given reasons.

To qualify for the FMLA leave, you have to provide 30 days’ advanced notice in the least.

Got you interested? You can inquire if your company is eligible to be under the FMLA leave and begin spending some quality time with your family.