FMLA/Leaves
The federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of 1993 allows you to take unpaid leave from your job for special family situations while protecting your job and health benefits. FMLA allows eligible employees to take up to 12 workweeks of unpaid leave in a 12-month period for the following reasons:
- Birth, adoption, or foster care placement of a child
- A serious health condition that prevents the employee from doing the essential functions of his or her job.
- Caring for a child, spouse or parent with a serious health condition
- A qualifying exigency arising out of the fact that your spouse; son or daughter; parent is on active duty or call to active duty status in support of a contingency operation as a member of the National Guard or Reserve
- Your spouse; son or daughter, parent; or next of kin of a covered servicemember with a serious injury or illness.
The FMLA also allows most employees to maintain health insurance coverage while on leave and to return to the same or an equivalent position at the end of the leave.
Employees are eligible to take leave if they have worked:
- For the employer for at least 12 months
- At least 1,250 hours in the previous 12 months
- At a worksite when 50 or more employees are employed by the company within a 75-mile radius of the worksite.
A leave can be taken all at once or intermittently (such as for periodic medical treatments)
For step-by-step instructions on how to process through a Leave of Absence, including an FMLA, please refer to the link below entitled, "Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) Process and Procedures."