Family Medical Leave of Absence (FMLA)

Issued By: Human Resources

Effective Date: January 1993

Revised: April 1995; June 1995; March 1999; December 2009; November 2011; August 2013

The Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) was signed into law in 1993 and amended in 2009 to balance the needs of employers and employees in circumstances when employees must take extended medical leaves for serious medical conditions, including pregnancy, or to care for family members. The purpose of the law is to provide job protection for the employee. The College requires all qualifying absences to be designated as FMLA and to provide employees with written notification of such designation. In order to remain compliant with the law and to maintain consistency and fairness, there may be instances where the College will designate an employee's absence as FMLA without a request from the employee.

FMLA leave is not in addition to College leave benefits but runs concurrently with applicable paid leaves.

Definition

A family medical leave of absence (FMLA) is defined as an approved unpaid absence available to eligible employees for up to twelve regular work weeks of leave during a 12 month period under the following circumstances:

  • upon the birth of the employee's child;

  • upon the placement of a child with the employee for adoption or foster care;

  • when the employee is unable to perform the functions of his or her position because of a serious health condition;

  • when the employee is needed to care for a child (dependent or non-dependent, foster child, a stepchild, a legal ward, or a child of a person standing in loco parentis who is either under 18 years of age, or 18 or older and incapable of self-care because of a mental or physical disability).

  • when the employee is needed to care for a spouse, or parent (step or foster father or mother, or someone who stood in loco parentis to the employee when the employee was a son or daughter) who has a serious health condition; Parent for FMLA purposes does not include in-laws.

  • when the employee has a qualifying exigency due to a parent, spouse or child in the military who is on covered active duty or is called to covered active duty status;

  • when the employee is needed to care for a spouse, parent, child, or "next of kin" who is a covered service member of the military and has an injury or serious illness.

  • A "serious health condition" means an illness, injury, impairment, or physical or mental condition that involves either:

  • A period of incapacity or treatment connected with inpatient care (i.e., an overnight stay) in a hospital, hospice, or residential medical-care facility, and any period of incapacity or subsequent treatment in connection with such inpatient care; or,

  • Continuing treatment by a health care provider which includes any period of incapacity (i.e., inability to work, attend school or perform other regular daily activities) due to:

    (1) A health condition (including treatment for or recovery from) lasting more than three full consecutive days, and any subsequent treatment or period of incapacity relating to the same condition, which also includes:

  • Treatment two or more times by or under the supervision of a health care provider within 30 days of initial period of incapacity; or

  • One treatment by a health care provider with a continuing regimen of treatment; or

    (2) Pregnancy or prenatal care; or

    (3) A chronic health condition which requires periodic visits at least twice a year for treatment by a health care provider, continues over an extended period of time, and causes episodic rather than a continuing period of incapacity (e.g., asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, etc.); or

    (4) A permanent or long-term condition for which treatment may not be effective (e.g., Alzheimer's, a severe stroke, terminal cancer). Only supervision by a health care provider is required, rather than active treatment; or

    (5) Any absences to receive multiple treatments for restorative surgery or for a condition which would likely result in a period of incapacity of more than three consecutive, full calendar days in the absence of medical intervention or treatment such as chemotherapy or radiation treatments for cancer, severe arthritis (physical therapy), or kidney disease (dialysis).

Eligibility

An employee must have been employed with the College for at least twelve months, and must have worked for at least 1,250 hours during the twelve months preceding the commencement of this leave.

Conditions of Leave

The College requires medical certification to support a claim for leave for an employee's own serious health condition or to care for a seriously ill child, spouse or parent. For the employee's own medical leave, the certification muse include a statement that the employee is unable to perform the functions of his/her position. For leave to care for a seriously ill child, spouse or parent, the certification must include an estimate of the amount of time the employee is needed to provide care.

An FMLA Certification Form is available in Human Resources. Depending on the circumstances and length of the leave, recertification may be requested every 30 days.

At its discretion, the College may require a second medical opinion at its own expense. If the first and second opinions differ, the College, at its own expense, may require the binding opinion of a third health care provider, approved jointly by the College and the employee

If medically necessary for a serious health condition of the employee or his/her spouse, child or parent, leave may be taken on an intermittent or reduced leave schedule.

Notification and Reporting Requirements

When the need for leave is foreseeable, such as the birth or adoption of a child, or planned medical treatment, the employee must provide reasonable prior notice, and make an effort to schedule leave so as not to disrupt College operations. In cases of illness, the employee will be required to report periodically on his or her leave status and intention to return to work.

Status of Employee Benefits During Family Medical Leave of Absence

  • The College will maintain medical, dental, and life insurance coverage at the level and under the conditions coverage would have been provided if the employee had continued in employment continuously for the duration of the leave.

  • In the event that an employee does not return to work upon completion of an approved FMLA leave, the employee will be required to reimburse the College the cost of any unpaid health insurance premiums made by the College to maintain the employee's health insurance coverage.

  • During unpaid FMLA leave, vacation and sick leave do not accrue. All employee and employer contributions to the College's retirement plan will be suspended during the unpaid portions of FMLA leave.

Procedures

All FMLA requests must be made to Human Resources. If possible, the request should be submitted thirty days in advance of the effective date of the leave.

If the FMLA leave is approved, time off for the leave may be unpaid, paid or a combination depending on the employee's eligibility to use accrued sick and vacation leave. Employees are required to use all but one week's worth of eligible sick leave and vacation during the FMLA leave. The FMLA request must be approved by Human Resources before accrued eligible sick leave may be used. Sick leave, vacation time, paid holidays, parenting leave, and lost time due to a worker's compensation injury run concurrently with FMLA leave.

The College has the discretion to designate an employee's time off as FMLA leave upon learning of an employee's absences.

FMLA Tracking

The law requires the College to track all FMLA time used by an employee. To track time and to determine FMLA hours available to the employee, the College uses a rolling 12-month period measured backward from the date an employee uses any FMLA leave. Employees are required to report on their timesheets all absences that are FMLA-related. Holidays are counted as FMLA hours. Options on timesheets are:

  • FMLA-sick
  • FMLA-vacation
  • FMLA-unpaid
  • FMLA-holiday

When on unpaid FMLA leave, employees are not eligible to receive pay for the 'free' hour off on Fridays during the summer months.

In cases where FMLA leave is taken on an intermittent basis, all FMLA hours must be tracked and reported on timesheets by both salaried and hourly staff. In instances where there is no paid time available to run concurrently with FMLA leave, employees (salaried and hourly) will have their pay reduced for time away due to FMLA and this time should be coded as FMLA-unpaid.

If at any point an intermittent leave becomes a regular leave of absence, the employee must submit an updated FMLA Certification Form to Human Resources.

Returning From Medical FMLA Leave

Prior to returning from a medical FMLA leave the employee must have his/her physician complete a Return from Leave Form indicating that the employee is able to return to work. The Return from Leave Form must be submitted to Human Resources prior to the date the employee is expected to return to work. Human Resources will review and approve the employee's effective return to work date.

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