The Department of Labor has issued final regs clarifying when time off does — and doesn’t — qualify under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA).
Tracking leave is especially important now as employees are bound to take time off for many reasons around the holidays — it could lead to trouble if they feel their time off wasn’t calculated properly and they were given less FMLA than they deserve.
Here are two areas of great concern and what’s allowed:
Leave around holidays
Whether you can count holidays toward someone’s FMLA entitlement depends on the type of leave the person takes.
Example: The hours the employee doesn’t work on the holiday will count against the leave entitlement — if he or she would normally be scheduled to work that day.
But the hours the employee didn’t work on the holiday can’t be counted against his or her leave requirement if the person wouldn’t have otherwise been required to work on that day.
Intermittent leave and OT
If an employee would’ve been required to work OT — if it weren’t for taking FMLA — then the hours the person would’ve worked (but didn’t) may be counted against his or her FMLA entitlement.
Example: Say an employee has a serious health condition that limits his normal 48-hour workweek to 40. He’d have to take 10 hours of FMLA-protected time off for the week.
