Length of Leave for the FMLA Act
The Family and Medical Leave Act, a federal law, allows employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave a year under certain circumstances. Employers may not terminate a worker's employment while the worker is taking FMLA time. The Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor investigates complaints regarding violations of employees' FMLA rights and may use court action to compel employers to comply.
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Basics
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Employees may take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave a year under the FMLA to give birth and look after a newborn; adopt a child or take in a foster child; care for an immediate family member or parent with a serious health condition; or attend to the employee's own serious health condition. Additionally, an employee may receive 26 weeks of unpaid leave a year if the employee has an immediate family member in the Armed Forces who requires care for a serious illness or injury. After an employee exhausts all available leave under the FMLA, the employer may require him to return to work or lose his job.
Considerations
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Employees may have a right to use FMLA leave on an intermittent basis by taking time off in separate blocks for a single reason. If the intermittent leave is to attend to the birth of a child or adoption of a child, the employer must give approval. If two spouses work for the same employer, they may take only a combined 12 weeks of unpaid leave a year to attend to the birth of a child, the adoption of a child or a parent with a serious health condition. The 12-week combined limit does not apply if one or the other spouse has a serious health condition.
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Misconceptions
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Laws do not require employers to provide other forms of leave---such as vacation time or sick days---whether paid or unpaid. If an employer offers paid leave, an employee may use it as part of her FMLA time. Likewise, the employer may require the employee to use up paid leave in that scenario. The paid leave would not be in addition to FMLA time. The maximum leave period would remain 12 weeks, but the employee would receive compensation for part of the time depending on the number of vacation or sick days she was using.
Disabilities
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Workers with disabilities may fall under the coverage of the Americans With Disabilities Act and thus have a right to take additional leave after the 12 weeks of FMLA time expire. The employer may deny that right by demonstrating that the additional leave would impose an undue hardship on business operations. Although the FMLA entitles the employee to return to either the same job or a job with equal pay and benefits and roughly equivalent duties, that right might not apply if a disability prevents the employee from performing essential aspects of the position. The employer in that case would not have to reinstate the employee to a substantially different position with the company.
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References
- United States Department of Labor: Fact Sheet #28-The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993
- United States Department of Labor: Work Hours-Vacation Leave
- United States Department of Labor: Health Benefits, Retirement Standards, and Workers' Compensation-Family and Medical Leave
- U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission: The Family and Medical Leave Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
Resources
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