The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is a federal law that provides eligible employees with time to take unpaid leave for specified family and medical situations, including for your own serious health condition or for taking care of an immediate family member because of a serious health condition.
FMLA leave can last up to 12 weeks during a 12-month period. Your position at the university is protected during this 12-week period.
Eligibility
To be eligible, you must have been employed at the university for at least 12 months and worked a minimum of 1,250 hours before taking FMLA leave. Only time worked is counted toward the 1,250 hours. That means no other sick or annual leaves, holidays, or other time off will be counted toward your worked hours.
Types of FMLA Leave
An eligible employee can take FMLA leave for one or more of the following reasons:
- The birth of the employee’s child or placement of a child with the employee for adoption or foster care, and to bond with the newborn or newly placed child;
- To care for the employee’s spouse, child, or parent (but not a parent “in-law”) who has a serious health condition;
- When a serious health condition renders the employee unable to perform the essential functions of their job;
- For certain events, called “qualifying exigencies,” related to covered active duty, or a call to covered active duty, of the employee’s spouse, child or parent;1 or
- To care for a covered service member with a service-related serious injury or illness and who is the employee’s spouse, child, parent, or next of kin.
The terms “serious health condition,” “qualifying exigency,” and “covered service member” are defined at length in the FMLA. Generally speaking, a serious health condition is an illness, injury, or chronic condition that involves treatment or supervision by a medical professional. It also includes incapacity or treatment related to pregnancy.
1 “Qualifying exigency” includes, among other things, certain short-notice deployments, attendance at certain military events and related activities, and certain school- and child care-related activities. A covered service member is a current member of the Armed Forces (including the National Guard and Reserves) who is receiving medical treatment or therapy, is recuperating, is in outpatient status, or is on the temporary disability list for a serious injury or illness.
Requesting FMLA Leave
To request FMLA leave, you must give at least 30 days’ notice before your leave begins if the leave involves a foreseeable event such as an expected birth or planned medical operation. If the event is unforeseeable, you must notify the university as soon as possible.
Using FMLA Leave Time
You are entitled to up to 12 work weeks for FMLA leave during a 12-month period.2 Your time away starts the first day of your FMLA leave. You can take your leave on a continuous, intermittent or reduced work schedule basis.
Concurrent Leave
FMLA leave is unpaid; however, there are many university leave policies that run concurrently with FMLA that may offer compensation, including:
- Sick leave
- Maternity leave
- Annual leave
- Catastrophic leave
If you have taken leave for maternity or illness/injury, you can opt to take unpaid FMLA leave if you are already receiving workers’ compensation benefits.
Impact on Your Health Benefits
When taking your FMLA leave, your university-sponsored health benefits will continue, but you must pay the employee’s portion of the health benefit premium.
The university does not pay for voluntary employee benefits while you are on leave without pay, regardless of whether the leave qualifies as FMLA leave.
2 A total of 26 weeks in a 12-month period is available to care for a covered service member with a serious service-related injury or illness.
