FMLA stands for the Family Medical Leave Act and applies to employers with 50 or more full-time employees or employee equivalents. It provides unpaid, job protected leave for specified family and medical reasons with continuation of group health coverage under the same terms and conditions as if they employee had not taken leave. For an employee to be eligible for FMLA, they must be employed for at least 12 months and worked at least 1,250 hours in the past 12 months. Eligible employees are allowed:
Twelve workweeks of leave in a twelve-month period for the following reasons:
- The birth of a child and to care for a newborn child within one year of birth
- The placement with the employee of a child for adoption or foster care and to care for the newly placed child within one year of placement.
- To care for a family member’s serious health condition (spouse, child or parent)
- An employee’s serious health condition that makes the employee unable to perform the essential duties of his or her job;
- Any qualified exigency arising out of the fact that the employee’s spouse, son, daughter, or parent is a covered military member on “covered active duty” OR
Twenty-six workweeks of leave during a single twelve-month period to care for a covered service member with a serious injury or illness if the eligible employee is the service member’s spouse, son/daughter, parent or next of kin.