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| FMLA Solutions
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The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of 1993 applies to all
employers with 50 or more employees in 20 or more work weeks in the
current or preceding calendar year.
What does this really mean? Most importantly, the twenty workweeks are
measured based on the entire calendar year and do not have to be
consecutive. Included in the test is any full-time or part-time
employees (including those not eligible for FMLA) whose name appears on
the payroll; each must counted as employed for each working day of the
week even if the employee did not receive any compensation for the
week. An employee does not need to work on each working day of the week
to be counted.
If the workforce of a covered employer drops below 50 employees, the
employer continues to be subject to the FMLA regulations until it fails
to meet the requirements of the 50 employee coverage test for both the
preceding and current calendar years.
Recordkeeping requirements rest with the employer. They must
maintain FMLA leave records for 3 years. However, FMLA does not require
employers to submit records to the Department of Labor, unless
specifically requested. The employer must maintain medical records and
documents for employees and their family members in separate files and
treat them confidentially.
Eligible employees are provided up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected
leave in a 12 month period for specified family and medical reasons.
Employees can take a leave for:
- The birth of their child, whether they are the mother or father.
- The placement of a child with the employee for adoption or foster care.
- To care for a spouse, child, or parent who has a serious health condition.
- To care for the employee’s own serious health condition.
To be eligible an employee must have been employed 12 months, must have
worked 1,250 hours before the leave, and must be at a site where there
are fifty or more employees within a 75 mile radius of that site.
To calculate the 12 month period, you can use a calendar year
or fiscal year, or it can be based on each employee’s anniversary date
of hire. The best way to administer FMLA is to use the rolling twelve
month calendar method: simply look back at the twelve month period
preceding the leave. Whichever method you chose it must be applied
consistently to all employees.
Employers should require employees to provide medical
certification that a serious health condition exists. Employers must
notify their employees about the medical certification requirement with
a letter stating the consequences of noncompliance. After the request
for FMLA is received the employer must notify the employee within two
business days of whether the leave counts against the twelve-weeks and
whether the employer intends for any accrued paid time to run
concurrently with the FMLA leave. If the employer fails to notify the
employee with the proper required notification, the absence will not
count against the employee’s twelve-weeks and whether the employer
intends for any accrued paid time to run concurrently with the FMLA
leave. If the employer fails to notify the employee with the proper
required notification, the absence will not count against the
employee’s twelve-week entitlement. Then the employee must be given at
least fifteen days to provide the employer with the medical
certification. Initiating the process, by way of giving the employee
written notice, starts the clock running; you should do so at every
opportunity. Workers’ compensation and short term disability, for
example, are almost always FMLA-qualifying and the employee should be
notified as such.
Employees seeking to use FMLA leave are required to provide a
thirty-day advance notice of the need to take a FMLA leave when the
need is foreseeable and such notice is practicable. If the need for
leave is foreseeable, such as childbirth or scheduled surgery, the
employee must schedule treatment in the least disruptive manner to the
employer. If the leave is unforeseeable, the employee must notify the
employer as soon as practicable, usually within two business days.
Employees are not required to use the term “FMLA” or “family
leave” when making a leave request. Once your supervisors or managers
know the reason for the leave, it is up to the employer to determine
whether the leave is a qualifying event or not.
When returning from an FMLA leave, the employee must be
restored to the employee’s original job, or to an equivalent job with
equivalent pay, benefits, and other terms and conditions of employment.
In addition, the employee’s use of FMLA leave cannot result in loss of
any employment benefits that the employee earned or was entitled to use
before taking an FMLA leave, nor be counted against the employee under
a “no fault” attendance policy.
All employees retain any benefits accrued before the leave. Employees
keep health coverage during the leave if they continue to pay their
share of premiums. Employees who let their health coverage lapse during
leave must be reinstated when they come back to work. If thee employee
does not return to work at the end of the leave, the employer is
entitled to recover all cost incurred in providing these benefits as
long as the employees are aware of this consequence at the beginning of
their leave.
Posting requirements under the FMLA require every employer subject to
the act to post and keep posted on its premises, in conspicuous place
where employees are employed, a notice explaining the act’s provisions
and providing information concerning the procedures for filing
complaints of violations of the act with the department of labor.
What makes BASIC HR Services FMLA so powerful?
FMLA MANAGEMENT
- Identify: Designed to identify those absences which are potentially FMLA qualified.
- Notify:
Employers are required to provide FMLA notices which are often more
demanding than any other federal law. BASIC HR Services will generate these notices
to the appropriate parties and follow up.
- Tracking: BASIC HR Services will keep track of each employer’s 12-month period with multiple tracking methods.
- Reporting:
BASIC HR Services will produce standard reports showing the amount of FMLA time used
for each employee. Including intermittent absences.
- Customer Service: Provide management with more than 8 standard reports, meeting all administrative requirement of FMLA.
BENEFITS TO EMPLOYERS
- Provides ease of
consistent, non-biased benefits administration with determinations and
accounting, bringing a new level of consistency and reliability to
FMLA.
- Tracking: BASIC HR Services will keep track of each employer’s 12-month period with multiple tracking methods.
- Frees supervisor to focus on operations
- Promptly notifies supervisors of absence.
- Helps deal with habitually sick employees and their absences.
BENEFITS TO EMPLOYEE
- Provides the ability to report an illness or injury 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
- Promotes consistent and fair benefit administration and maintains confidentiality.
- Offers ease of use with single entry point for absence reporting
- Provides access to a customer service representative to help navigate the system and answer questions.
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