As
school district employees, you are covered by several federal
employment laws designed to protect you from undue loss of
employment or discrimination on a variety of bases. One of the
federal leave laws designed to assist working families is the
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).
Among
Congress's stated purposes in adopting the FMLA were: "to
balance the demands of the workplace with the needs of families,
to promote the stability and economic security of families, and
to promote national interests in preserving family integrity; .
. . [and to accomplish these purposes] in a manner that accommodates
the legitimate interests of employers."
The
FMLA permits qualified employees to take up to 12 weeks of
unpaid leave during a 12-month period for one or a combination
of the following reasons:
·
For the birth of a child and to care for that child;
·
For the placement of an adopted child or foster child;
·
To care for a family member with a serious health condition,
including the spouse, son, daughter or parent of the employee;
·
When the employee is unable to work due to the employee's own
serious health condition; or
·
New provision: An eligible employee who is the spouse, son,
daughter, parent or next of kin of a covered servicemember shall
be entitled to a total of 26 workweeks of leave during a
12-month period to care for the servicemember.
·
The employer determines if the reason is an FMLA-qualifying event.
In
order to be eligible for leave under the FMLA, an employee:
·
must have been employed for at least 12 months by the employer of
whom the leave request is made; and
·
must have worked at least 1,250 hours for that employer during the
previous 12-month period.
Leave
for the birth and care of a child or for the placement of an
adopted or foster child must be used within 12 months after the
child's birth date or an adopted or foster child's placement
date. Spouses who work for the same employer are limited to a
combined total of 12 weeks during the 12-month period to use
leave related to the birth and care or placement of a child.
During
a 12-month period, an eligible employee under the two new
service-member applications is entitled to a combined total of
26 workweeks.
Under
FMLA, upon your return from a qualified period of leave, your
employer must return you to the same position you held before
taking the leave or to an "equivalent position" as it
relates to pay, benefits and other terms of employment. In
addition, for employees who have group health-insurance
coverage, employers must continue to maintain the coverage on
the same terms while an employee is on qualified FMLA leave.
However, if at the end of a period of qualified leave, the
employee chooses not to return to work, even though he or she is
able, the employer is entitled to be repaid for insurance
premiums it has paid for the entire leave period.
The Act gives employers some flexibility in how
they administer FMLA leave. For instance, although FMLA leave is
unpaid leave, an employer may, by published policy, permit or
require employees to use or apply any applicable paid leave as
part of the 12-week period. In addition, employers may elect
one of several methods for determining the 12-month period
within which leave may be taken, but that election must be
published in the employer's policy or provided in written form
to employees.
If
the policy is not properly published, employees may use the
method that is most favorable to them in calculating the amount
of leave they may take. Thus, our standard mantra rings true:
Check your local school-board policy to see how your
district's FMLA policy is administered.
For more
detailed information regarding the Family and Medical Leave Act,
check the U.S. Department of Labor information at www.dol.gov/compliance/laws/comp-fmla.htm#factsheets.
If you have a specific situation with which you need
assistance, please contact NWPE at (800) 380-6973.
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