{"id":13387,"date":"2023-02-01T10:14:47","date_gmt":"2023-02-01T15:14:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/?p=13387"},"modified":"2023-02-09T10:51:43","modified_gmt":"2023-02-09T15:51:43","slug":"family-and-medical-leave-act-fmla","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/family-and-medical-leave-act-fmla\/","title":{"rendered":"Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA): What Employers Need to Know"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13388\" src=\"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/pexels-andrea-piacquadio-3760514.jpg\" alt=\"Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)\" width=\"1024\" height=\"754\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/pexels-andrea-piacquadio-3760514.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/pexels-andrea-piacquadio-3760514-980x722.jpg 980w, https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/pexels-andrea-piacquadio-3760514-480x353.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) and (max-width: 980px) 980px, (min-width: 981px) 1024px, 100vw\" \/>For 30 years, HR professionals have been working with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dol.gov\/agencies\/whd\/fmla\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Family and Medical Leave Act<\/a> (FMLA), a federal law enacted to protect employees\u2019 jobs and medical insurance when they need to take unpaid time away from work for certain family and medical reasons.<\/p>\n<p>While FMLA has been around for a while, you may be new to the law because your organization has grown to the point where it only now applies to you or you\u2019ve just had your first request from an employee for leave. Whatever your case, it never hurts to review the basics. FMLA can get pretty complicated, even for employers who have been granting and administering leave for years.<\/p>\n<p>FMLA involves a lot more than job protection: there\u2019s handling paperwork, deciding whether the medical condition qualifies, whether leave will be taken all at once or intermittently, and what happens when the employee returns. Let\u2019s review some of the basic questions employers have about the law.<\/p>\n<h2>Are You a FMLA Covered Employer?<\/h2>\n<p>If you are an employer with 50 or more employees for at least 20 workweeks in the current or previous calendar year, you are subject to FMLA. Elementary and secondary schools are covered regardless of their employee count.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re a covered employer, you are required to hang the FMLA poster at your workplace where applicants and employees can see it \u2013 even if you don\u2019t have any eligible employees.<\/p>\n<h2>Which Employees Are FMLA Eligible?<\/h2>\n<p>An employee is an <em>eligible employee <\/em>if they:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Have worked for you for at least 12 months (not necessarily consecutively);<\/li>\n<li>Have worked for you at least 1,250 hours during the 12-month period immediately before the leave; and<\/li>\n<li>Work at a location where you have at least 50 employees within 75 miles.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Remote employees are considered to work at the worksite they report to and where their assignments are made from. An employee\u2019s personal residence is not a worksite for purposes of FMLA.<\/p>\n<p>If you have any eligible employees, you are required to provide the information on the FMLA poster in your employee handbook or by distributing a copy to each new employee upon hire.<\/p>\n<h2>What Can an Employee Take FMLA for?<\/h2>\n<p>Employees are entitled to take FMLA for the following reasons:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The birth of a baby and care for their newborn within one year of birth;<\/li>\n<li>The placement with the employee of a child for adoption or foster care and to care for the newly placed child within one year of placement;<\/li>\n<li>To care for the employee\u2019s spouse, child, or parent who has a serious health condition;<\/li>\n<li>A <em>serious health condition<\/em> that makes the employee unable to perform the essential functions of their job;<\/li>\n<li>A qualifying exigency because the employee\u2019s spouse, child, or parent is a military member on active duty.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>What Is a Serious Health Condition?<\/h3>\n<p>FMLA defines a serious health condition as an illness, injury, impairment, or physical or mental condition that involves either inpatient care or continuing treatment by a health care provider. Both physical and mental health conditions qualify for FMLA leave.<\/p>\n<p>As far as continuing treatment, you may be surprised as to what is covered, especially when it comes to conditions that require intermittent care, such as mental health like anxiety or PTSD or recurring physical ailments like migraines or infertility.<br \/>\nYou can find forms on the platform for employees to use with their providers to determine if their condition qualifies.<\/p>\n<h2>How Much Time Do Employees Get for FMLA?<\/h2>\n<p>The total time allotted is up to 12 work weeks of leave per year (or longer for military caregiver leave, explained below). You get to define what a year is. You can use:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Calendar year or another similarly fixed 12-month year,<\/li>\n<li>12 months forward from the first date the employee starts FMLA, or<\/li>\n<li>Rolling 12 months, counting backward from the date an employee uses FMLA.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Any of these methods are acceptable, just be sure to pick one and stick with it. If you don\u2019t identify your FMLA year, employees are entitled to use whichever year is most favorable to them.<\/p>\n<p>Intermittent leave adds additional complexity to FMLA. Employees are entitled to take FMLA intermittently or on a reduced schedule when medically necessary. You want to be sure you are consistently tracking the time your employees take that qualifies for FMLA. You can find sample tracking documents on the platform.<\/p>\n<h2>What Does FMLA Say About Military Family Leave?<\/h2>\n<p>The caregiver of a military member with a serious injury or illness may take up to 26 workweeks of unpaid leave during a single 12-month period. You\u2019ll note that\u2019s a longer amount of time than the standard 12 weeks.<\/p>\n<h2>What is Job Protection?<\/h2>\n<p>Job protection means an employer must return an employee who took FMLA leave to the same position they held when leave began or to an equivalent position. An employee is entitled to reinstatement even if the employee has been replaced or the position has been restructured to accommodate the employee\u2019s absence.<\/p>\n<p>An equivalent position is virtually identical to the employee\u2019s former position in terms of pay, benefits, and other terms and conditions of employment. It must involve the same or substantially similar duties and responsibilities and require substantially equivalent skill, effort, responsibility, and authority.<\/p>\n<p>If an employee is no longer qualified for the position (for example, they couldn\u2019t attend a necessary course or renew a license) because of the leave, the employee must be given a reasonable opportunity to become qualified again when their leave ends.<\/p>\n<h2>Are There FMLA Exceptions?<\/h2>\n<p>FMLA\u2019s only real exception is the reinstatement of a \u201ckey employee.\u201d This is an employee who is salaried, FMLA-eligible, and among the highest-paid 10 percent of employees within 75 miles. An employer may decline to reinstate a key employee if returning them to their position (but not continued absence) would cause substantial and grievous economic injury to the employer\u2019s operations. In this case, the employee is still entitled to take their FMLA leave and the employer has specific notice requirements. If you believe that the reinstatement may need to be denied, we recommend speaking with an attorney.<\/p>\n<h2>What Paperwork Is Needed?<\/h2>\n<p>FMLA has rather involved paperwork requirements. We\u2019ll walk you through the paperwork for an initial leave request.<\/p>\n<p>When an employee requests leave for a reason that might qualify for FMLA, the employer has five business days to provide notice about their FMLA eligibility, rights, and responsibilities. It\u2019s worth noting that the employee doesn\u2019t have to request FMLA leave per se, so it\u2019s important for managers to know the types of leave requests that can trigger FMLA. If the employee isn\u2019t eligible for FMLA, you can stop here.<\/p>\n<p>If the employee is eligible, in most cases, the employer should provide a certification form and, if the leave is for the employee\u2019s own serious health condition, the employee\u2019s job description when they provide the notice of FMLA eligibility, rights, and responsibilities. You can require the employee to provide the requested certification within 15 calendar days after providing them the form but would need to grant an extension if they try but can\u2019t meet that deadline.<\/p>\n<p>Once you have enough information to know that the employee\u2019s leave is for an FMLA-qualifying reason, you have five business days to provide the employee with a designation notice. This notice tells the employee whether their leave \u2013 and, if known, how much \u2013 will be counted as FMLA.<\/p>\n<h2>Outsource Your FMLA Administration<\/h2>\n<p>With so much to manage when it comes to FMLA, it can be difficult for employers to effectively handle eligibility, track hours, assist with returning to work, and much more. That&#8217;s why outsourcing your employee leave management makes sense. GTM&#8217;s Leave Specialists will help plan, track, and handle employee leaves, including administration, claims management, return-to-work support, and reporting. The service is delivered via a secure, cloud-based solution and backed by a dedicated team of specialists who are SHRM Certified and FMLA Certified professionals.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/leave-management-outsourcing-guide\/\">Download our free guide on outsourcing your leave management<\/a>, then fill out the brief form below for more information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>These Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) basic questions and answers will help employers manage their employees&#8217; leaves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[266],"tags":[79,37,304],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-13387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-consulting-services","tag-compliance","tag-fmla","tag-leave-management"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13387"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13450,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13387\/revisions\/13450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13387"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=13387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}