Eligibility after intermittent FMLA

Leslie

I have an employee who has been on itermittent FMLA since 09/30/2000 - first due to an illness in her family, then a personal illness. As of 09/18/2001 she has used up the last 6 of her 60 days. When is she again eligible?

Jane Reddin AZ

It depends on a couple of factors. First, when does your Company's "year" run for calculating FMLA leave? You should have established this in your policies, or at least have given this to the employee when you notified her about her rights and responsibilities under the FMLA when her intermittent leave first started. There are four possible ways under the FMLA to have your year run: (1) Calendar year - Jan 1 to Dec 31; (2) fiscal year - your company's fiscal year, if different from calendar year, such as June 1 to May 31; (3) individualized employee rolling backward eligibility year (you look at how much time they've taken over the past year, and subtract that from 12 weeks to determine how much they have left); (4) rolling forward employee year (start counting when the employee first requests the leave.
For the rest of this discussion, let's assume you are on a calendar year, so that her new "year" does not start until January 1st, 2002. If that is the case, then once that new date comes along you will need to evaluate whether the employee is eligible for FMLA leave all over again. Has she worked 1250 hours for you in the prior year? If so, she gets to take another 12 weeks (or 60 days) of leave in 2002.
From now until the end of the year, however - you need to consider the ADA - is she disabled? Does she have a continuing need for an accommodation in the form of intermittent leave? If so you will continue to need to accommodate her under the ADA. I hope this helps.
Jane

Leslie

Jane - This is the first intermittent leave we have had where the employee actually used up all the time. We use, "(4) rolling forward employee year (start counting when the employee first requests the leave)." So now where does that leave us? Thanks, Leslie