Intermittent FMLA in Utah
Posted by Tamara
The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) allows eligible employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per 12 month period for certain personal and medical conditions. To be eligible an employee must have worked for that employer at least 1,250 hours in the previous 12 months.
One of the tenets of FMLA has been causing Utah employers and employers across the country a lot of concern. That tenet is the ability for employees to take unscheduled, intermittent FMLA leave.
The concern comes from the interpretation of unscheduled and intermittent. For example, last year John, who works 40 hours per week, needed chemotherapy twice a week, and would often show up late or not at all on those days. He didn’t give advance notice, and sometimes didn’t even call in. He simply didn’t show up, and when he returned to work, counted the time as FMLA leave.
Many people have pointed out that this was not the intention of the FMLA provisions. As a result, updated FMLA regulations will go into effect on January 17, 2009, clarifying these two terms. Under the updated regulations, employees must follow their company’s standard procedures to report an absence when taking FMLA leave. They are still allowed to take unscheduled, intermittent leave, but are now required to follow the usual call-in practice. If a worker doesn’t follow the company’s standard practice, then the employer is within its legal rights to terminate that employee.
Under the new regulations, if John is taking time off due to chemotherapy, he must call his employer as per standard procedure.
FMLA leave doesn’t have to be in full day increments. An employee can take an hour, or half a day, or several days, depending on his or her needs. The time taken counts toward his total 12 weeks (480 hours) available for that year. If John takes 40 hours for chemotherapy, and later needs more surgery, he may only take 440 hours of FMLA at that time.
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