FMLA Eligibility

Craig B

I have an employee who has been with the company for 11 months and is going out per doctors orders due to complications with her pregnancy. The doctors has put her on bed rest until her due date/delivery in early August. I know she is not eligible for FMLA now at the time of her doctors order because she has not been with us for 12 months but is she eligible in one month on her aniversary date? Has anyone had this happen before? How do you reccomend we handle this situation?

Thank you
Craig B

NaeNae55

I believe I read of a case where the employee was one week away from meeting the one year requirement (and had met other qualifications) and had one week of vacation available. The court held that the employee had the right to use their vacation for that week and then would be eligible on the anniversary date for 12 weeks of fmla.

So if you would normally allow this employee to be gone for one month without termination (paid or unpaid), and she has met the other qualifications (such as 1250 hours), then she will have 12 weeks available to her on her anniversary date. However, if this employee does not have 4 weeks leave available and you would normally terminate an employee for unpaid leave of this duration, then you can terminate her.

Good luck!

mmurnahan

If an employee is within 30 days of their FMLA eligibility, we error on the side of the employee and always grant the leave as if they were eligible. Outslide of 30 days, it would determine if they had 30 days vacation/sick days to get them to the eligibility date.

Because we have so many leave issues and employees who are not eligible for FMLA, needing to take medical leave. We have updated our leave policy to include a "medical leave" this is for employees who are not eligible for FMLA due to the 12 month rule, but have been employeed for at least 6 months. The length of leave is determined by the physician statement not to exceed 8 weeks.