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The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is a federal regulation that allows employees time off to take care of themselves or their loved ones in the face of serious health issues without worrying about losing their jobs or their health benefits. This is provided for by employment practices liability insurance. FMLA provides eligible employees with 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave in order to care for: Their own serious health condition The serious health condition of a child, parent or spouse, When there is a new child or baby in the household, or When the employee has a child, parent or spouse called to active military duty Employees are also allowed 26 weeks of leave to care for a child, parent or spouse in need of care after returning from military duty. One of the two central elements of the FMLA is that the covered employer must provide the employee continued health coverage for the duration of their leave. The other central element of the FMLA is that upon return from FMLA leave, the employee must be returned to the same or equivalent position they had before they took leave, including the same benefits, and other terms and conditions of employment. Administrating FMLA can be daunting. Suspected employee abuse is the No. 1 complaint about intermittent FMLA leave. Potential for or suspicion of abuse is reported to cause extreme difficulty in managing these sometimes frequent but brief absences. Forty-nine percent (49 percent) of intermittent FMLA absences are scheduled, but most intermittent leave users (81percent) are providing no more than a 24-hour notice, and over half give notice the day of the absence or later. It is possible that employers don’t agree on what it means for an absence to be ‘scheduled,’ but clearly by the notice period results, the overwhelming majority of intermittent leave users are providing little, if any, advance notice of their need to be absent. The need to track intermittent FMLA absences, in order to comply with various provisions, remains a considerable challenge for businesses. Tracking FMLA leave is necessary to carry out many provisions of the FMLA, although it in itself is not a federal requirement. Time-sensitive requirements such as the employee notice provision make internal communication and documentation very important. When employees are taking large numbers of days off under the FMLA, it is quite a bit easier to manage from an administrative perspective, than when intermittent leave is taken. Inconsistencies in who is being notified, and breakdowns in communications between departments can often lead to increased difficulty in managing intermittent FMLA leave.
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