Managing leave in accordance with the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) can be burdensome. Intermittent FMLA leave in particular gets a bad rap because of the hassle of recordkeeping. Is your HR department on point? We have a refresher to supplement your FMLA training.
Employers must be sure to accurately account for the time taken off from work, and they must also calculate the allowed time correctly—keeping in mind that the allowed number of hours won’t be the same for every employee. Here are a few tricky situations and how to navigate them.
When Could the Allowed Number of Hours Be Different?
If only intermittent FMLA leave were as simple as multiplying 40 hours a week by 12 weeks: 480 hours. Simple. Easy. Done. Unfortunately, it’s not always that simple, and it can be easy to make the mistake of giving employees more or less time off than they’re allowed—which can cause even more headaches later.
The key to remember here is that the intermittent FMLA time allowed should be based on the employee’s standard workweek. As such, if the employee routinely works a 40-hour week—no more, no less—and has done so pretty consistently for the last year, then it’s probably fine to use the calculation above.
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But for a salaried employee or for an employee who routinely works overtime—say, for example, one employee who routinely works a 50-hour week—is the allotment still just 480 total hours? The answer is No—his or her FMLA leave would be the equivalent, in total hours, of what he or she would have worked during that 12-week period. In this case, 50 hours multiplied by 12 weeks would equal 600 hours of leave due. (Conversely, if an employee qualifies for FMLA leave but routinely works less than 40 hours per week, then the allotment of intermittent FMLA leave time would be less than 480 hours.)
Here are some other special scenarios:
- What about employees who work a different schedule every week, with variation to the point that a normal workweek is unknown? For those employees, the employer should do a calculation to determine the average hours worked per week over the past year. When calculating this average, the employer should include any type of regular leave hours taken in the past year as well (paid time off, vacation time, sick time, etc.).
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- If an employee has recently changed schedules before discovering the need for FMLA leave, then the new schedule should be used, not the old schedule.
- If overtime is required of an employee who is taking intermittent leave or if an employee is unable to work required overtime due to his or her health condition, then the overtime hours can count against the employee’s FMLA leave allotment—even if the employee still works 40 hours that week. This is only true if the missed overtime was mandatory, not voluntary.
In tomorrow’s Advisor, we review another FMLA training scenario—the increments in which intermittent leave must be calculated.