Indiana Intermittent FMLA
Posted by Tamara
One of the biggest concerns among employees in Indiana and elsewhere in the U.S. is the federally-sanctioned right of employees to take unscheduled, intermittent leave under FMLA.
The Family and Medical Leave Act or FMLA allows this kind of leave, and the U.S. Department of Labor has addressed the issue. A report from the Labor Department has acknowledged the concerns of employers. It has been noted that the FMLA was not originally intended to provide unscheduled and intermittent leaves, and future legislation may address the problem. FMLA regulations for 2009 address the issue to some degree, requiring employees to follow their companies’ standard reporting procedures when taking unscheduled time off, including intermittent time off, under FMLA.
To understand this form of leave, it is important to know the general provisions of the FMLA.
The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 mandates as much as 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave to every employee who has worked for an employer for at least 1,250 hours in the past year. The term “job-protected” means that the employer cannot permanently replace a worker who is on FMLA leave. In other words, the employee is guaranteed his or her job back when returning from FMLA leave. Employees may take leave at the birth of a child or because of a health condition.
The FMLA leave applies to employees at any business location with 50 or more workers living within a 75-mile radius of that location. It applies to all public agencies, regardless of size.
Nothing in the FMLA stops a worker from using the leave time sporadically or intermittently, or using it without advance scheduling.
If a worker were suffering from pregnancy-connected nausea and vomiting that was severe enough to prevent her from working, she may take time off under the FMLA. That time off may be partial days. The employer may require a doctor’s certification verifying the problem, but once verification is submitted, the worker may take off whatever hours are necessary, whether or not it amounts to a partial day. She need not “schedule” the time off in advance, either.
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