Family and Medical Leave Act — A series of regulations that work as a job protection statute. This act requires that leave be provided should an employer meet FMLA criteria, making return to work guaranteed to the same or equivalent job.

Americans with Disabilities Act — This act allows qualifying employees to take a leave of absence and return to work in the same or equivalent job, only if doing so does not impose undo hardships on their organization. After FMLA is exhausted, ADA may be an option for employees to continue their leave of absence if the employee continues to qualify and is accepted by the organization.

Workers Compensation — WC is not a job protection statute, and instead provides financial benefits. However, employees can use FMLA concurrently with WC if the employee meets the disabling qualifications of FMLA.

Navigating FMLA can be complicated when employees request a leave of absence, so knowing the steps to keep your company compliant is crucial. When an employee requests to take a leave of absence, be sure to:

• Evaluate the employee's eligibility
• Determine if the reason for leave qualifies under FMLA
• Calculate the entitlement for leave
• Provide the employee with their eligibility, rights, and responsibilities, in writing within 5 days of request
• Confirm your decision in writing, within 5 days of the receipt of all requested information

For employers with 50 or more employees, FMLA is enacted for the following employees:

• Been employed for at least 12 months (does not need to be consecutive)
• Employed at a site with 50 or more employees employed within a 75 mile radius
• Have worked for at least 1,250 hours during the 12 months prior to the leave request

FMLA absences are more varied than just maternity leave, but most commonly include:

• Birth of a child
• Placement of a child for adoption or foster care
• To care for a spouse, child or parent with a serious health condition
• To care for one's own health during a serious health condition
• To care for a family member injured in the line of duty (military caregiver leave)
  
• To attend to a qualifying exigency arising out of the foreign deployment of a covered family member

The Family and Medical Leave Act requires an employee or a family member to be suffering from a condition like, but not limited to, one of the following:

• Severe allergies
• Asthma
• Alzheimer's
• Diabetes
• Epilepsy
• Mental illness
• Restorative surgery after an injury
• Removal/recovery from cancerous tumors
• Stroke

Understanding how FMLA works is crucial to staying legally compliant, while also keeping your company productive and profitable. When an employee requests a leave of absence, each leave request must be considered individually based on the facts. However, the following are typically not covered by FMLA:

• Routine check-ups
• Minor illness or injuries, even with a doctor's visit
• Elective treatments not requiring inpatient care
• Absence caused by substance abuse (Note: Absence caused by addiction treatment is usually covered)

Leave laws are complex and varied, so it's important to know that currently all states besides Delaware, South Dakota, Utah and Idaho have enacted their own additional mandates to protect employees. In addition, leave laws are under review in several states, and others like New York have recently enacted new legislation. Be sure to stay up to date with current and changing laws in every state where your company has eligible employees.

A 2014 employer leave management survey conducted by DMEC showed that employers listed the following tasks as difficult or extremely difficult to manage:

• Tracking intermittent time during leave
• Following intermittent time previously taken before the start of FMLA
• Interacting in conjunction with ADA/ADAAA laws

This study shows that 60% of HR representatives polled have difficulty tracking employee absences — a challenging and time-consuming task.

With the exception of bonding leave, once an employee is determined eligible for FMLA during a certain period of time, they may take their allotment of leave in increments of time rather than on a continuous basis. Example: if an employee is granted 12 weeks of leave during the year, they remain eligible for that entire year and they can take the 12 weeks during that 12 month period continuously, on an intermittent basis or a reduced schedule.

Tips to limit the disruption of intermittent FMLA:

• If the absence is for planned medical treatment, consider the possibility of a temporary work transfer to a position where sporadic absences won't be as disruptive.
• Be sure to have a system to carefully track absence time in order to avoid legal penalties.
• Be sure to require medical certification.

When choosing how to handle FMLA, many factors have to be considered:

• Understand your company's size, and how many leave cases your HR representatives can effectively handle. On average, supervisors spend 4.2 hours a week (5.3 weeks/year) focused on dealing with absence related issues.*
• Consider the number of locations, operational sites, and whether sites within 75 miles of each other have a combination of over 50 employees, which would then require your company to follow FMLA.
• Continually check your capabilities to ensure your representatives are effectively handling your current leave cases within legal compliance.

What to look for in a leave service provider:

• If offering short term disability insurance to your employees, see if the benefits carrier offers FMLA bundling to wrap up administration of absences and timelines within one vendor.
• Find a company that ensures real-time updates to changes in state and federal laws. Also, check to see if they offer indemnity to you, should something get missed. This provides you safety and peace of mind against any possible legal ramifications.
• Check to see if the company has examples of case studies to show how they can enhance productivity at your company, by effectively managing FMLA to reduce lost time.

*Daily Document Update: HR Compliance Library, 33,636, Employee absences have consequences for productivity and revenue, SHRM
research shows — SURVEY RESULTS, (Dec. 30, 2014)

Yes. The FMLA has no provision prohibiting an employee from working another job while on leave from his or her primary employer unless the employer has an established policy that would forbid employees from working secondary jobs in general.

Yes, in some states. An employer can require an employee to use accrued paid leave at the same time as their FMLA leave (unpaid). It's important that employers establish this requirement in their policies if they want to require such substitution. If they do not, it becomes they employee's option whether to use accrued paid leave during otherwise unpaid FMLA. Some states restrict this from happening, so employers should consult their local laws for confirmation.

Yes. Under the FMLA, an employer must provide reduced schedule leave when medically necessary. Since the FMLA also makes it clear that an employer cannot require an employee to take more leave than is medically necessary, an employer is obligated to return an employee to work on a reduced schedule when there are no additional restrictions regarding essential functions of the employee's job.

Note: If the need for leave is for planned medical treatment, an employer does have the option of transferring the employee to an alternate position as long as it has equivalent pay and benefits.