FMLA - 1/2 time left and more issues...
Cannon
9 Posts
Employee has taken 1/2 of FMLA entitlement for surgery beginning 7/13/06. Recently employee has requested leave again for low back pain & anxiety. I'm waiting on confirmation from both doctors. Question: Employee has 29 days left for FMLA until we reach 7/13/07. Do I have to grant 12 more weeks at that point? And does the time run simultaneous for both of these problems?
Comments
There are others more knowledgeable than I on this who could comment further, but at least you got a response to your post.
We use the 12 month rolling period looking backward so that on the anniversary date of their first day of leave they are credited with another day of FMLA. This prevents employees from stacking leave. However they are only entitled to 12 weeks no matter how many qualifying conditions they may have. If you gave 12 weeks for each condition you could potentially have someone out of work forever.
Forward method example: EE uses 4 weeks on 7/1/06. They can only use another 8 weeks before 7/1/07. EE then uses another 4 weeks on 12/1/06. They can use 4 weeks before 7/1/07, and then they can use an additional 4 weeks between 7/1/07 and 12/1/07. The rolling forward method means keeping track of a lot of dates.
Backward method example: EE uses 4 weeks on 7/1/06. At ANY time if the EE wants to use FMLA you simply look back to their use during the prior year. If employee requests leave on 12/1/06, I can see they have used 4 weeks during the prior year and will tell them they have 8 weeks available. If employee asks for more leave on 5/1/07 I can look back and see they have used 8 weeks and tell them they have 4 weeks available. It gets a little tricker if they use all of the time available. If employee used 12 weeks on 7/1/06 and wants to take leave on 7/1/07, I can let them, but only one day at a time. On 7/1/07 they will only have one day available. Even if they use it, on 7/2/07 another day will become available and again they will have one day available. If they don't use it, then on 7/3/07 they will have 2 days availabe, and so on and so on. I think the rolling backwards method is easier as I never have to keep track of a lot of dates. Just look back the prior 365 days to see how much has been used.
Good luck!
Nae
Thank you for this example. This will help make our decision much easier.
On the backward method, I don't quite follow why they would only be eligible for one day on 7/1/07. If they took 12 weeks starting 7/1/06, wouldn't they be eligible for 12 weeks on 7/1/07 (assuming they satisfied the hours worked requirement)?
Another way to look at it in the case when the EE has used all 12 weeks in a year is to look at the one year anniversary date of each day used. So if the EE used all 12 weeks in a row beginning July 1, 2006 - they would indeed have 12 weeks to use in a row beginning July 1, 2007. That is because each day becomes available on it's one year anniversary.
If the EE use 4 weeks beginning July 1, 2006; and used another 4 weeks beginning 4/1/07 and another 4 weeks starting April 1, 2007 - then all those days do not immediately become available until their one year anniversary.
So, if the EE needed all 12 weeks in a row, starting July 1, 2007, they are out of luck because only 4 weeks would be available in the 2nd scenario. Looking back over any 12 month period will tell you what was used, and by subtraction, what is available.
I probably just confused you more.
"It gets a little tricker..."
Hope this helps.
Nae