Yes, if the overtime is truly required and not voluntary, says employment law attorney Christy Phanthavong of Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP.

But remember: Required overtime hours must be factored into the person’s FMLA leave entitlement. For example, if a person is typically required to work 45 hours per week, the leave entitlement calculation is 45 hours x 12 weeks, or 540 hours. If that person is eligible for FMLA leave and uses approved FMLA leave for an entire workweek, then the individual will have used 45 hours of FMLA leave (or one workweek of leave). If the person uses approved FMLA leave to reduce their work schedule to 40 hours per week (i.e., no overtime), then the individual will use five hours of FMLA leave each week (or 1/9 of a workweek of leave).

If employees are eligible for and approved to use FMLA, the federal provision states that 12 workweeks are provided, says VP of HR Jackie Plunkett.

The employer should track the time taken in accordance with how the employee is scheduled to work. If intermittent leave, hours can be utilized and tracked. If the person is regularly scheduled to work a 10-hour day and works only five, using the rest of the day as FMLA, the employer can track the five remaining hours as FMLA. In most cases, it is best to count a regularly scheduled day as a whole day or one of the 60 days allowed.

If an employee is required to work overtime, FMLA leave time would be used to cover that time; however, if it is voluntary overtime, FMLA leave would not be deducted from the employee’s allotment of time, says Anna Ratcliff, a Senior Director of HR in Florida.

If overtime is required, I would give the employee advance notice, document it, and have the employee acknowledge it. You never know when you will have to prove OT hours are required. With that in mind, I would check the state laws as well.