Family & Medical Leave (FMLA)
Having leave time designated as FMLA provides protections for the employee, as well as preserving the employee’s job and health benefits. You meet the work eligibility requirements for FMLA if you have worked for your employer for at least one year and have worked at least 1,250 hours in the preceding 12 months. Full-time and part-time employees may qualify. In general, an employee would have to work at least 25 or more hours per week throughout the year to meet this requirement.
Types of FMLA:
FMLA may be taken intermittently or in a continuous block of time. Intermittent FMLA means that the employee is still working, but needs time off periodically due to treatments, appointments, flare-ups, etc. per medical necessity or to provide care for an immediate family member with a serious health condition. Continuous FMLA means that the employee is completely off work for a set period of time. Intermittent & reduced schedule FMLA are only for medical necessity, not for childbirth/child placement, and bonding time.
FMLA Entitlement:
FMLA allows eligible employees who work for a covered employer to take up to 12 weeks of job-protected leave within a 12-month period. Individual holidays that occur during a continuous leave are counted towards the 12-week entitlement, but college breaks (winter break, spring break) are not, if the employee would not normally be scheduled to work during the break.
Qualifying Reasons:
• The birth of a child or placement of a child for adoption or foster care and to bond with the child (leave must be taken within 1 year of the child’s birth or placement).
• To care for the employee’s spouse/domestic partner*, child**, or parent who has a qualifying serious health condition.
• For the employee’s own qualifying serious health condition that makes the employee unable to perform their job.
• To manage the affairs of a service member called to active duty in a foreign country where the service member is the employee’s spouse, child or parent.
• To care for a covered service member with a serious injury or illness where I am the service member’s spouse, child, parent or next of kin.
*Domestic Partner – at least 18 years of age; not legally married or in any other domestic partnership; not related in any way that would prohibit marriage in the state of Florida; shares a permanent residence with employee as a member of the same household for a period of at least six (6) months and shares financial obligations and living expenses with employee.
**Child must be under age 18. If 18 or older, adult child must have a disability as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and be unable to perform activities of daily living without assistance.
Recording Time Off :
FMLA is an unpaid leave; however, employees are required to use their available accrued time prior to taking unpaid time off. During FMLA absences, you should draw from your available accrued time in the following order:
- Compensatory Time
- Sick Time
- Grandfathered Sick (frozen sick, sick leave payoff)
- Vacation Time
Personal time should not be used; it is only a placeholder, not an additional bank of hours. When used, it comes out of the sick time balance.
Employees must be in a paid status (either working or using accrued time off) both the day before and the day after a holiday or college break in order to receive holiday pay.
If an employee is taking a leave of absence due to their own health condition and the employee has elected the short-term disability benefit, they may be eligible for supplemental pay benefits. The employee should contact the short-term disability provider to initiate a claim for benefits.
Employee Health Benefits:
If your leave is approved as FMLA, it will protect your health benefits. While on FMLA in a paid status, any health benefit premiums that you have will continue to be deducted from your pay checks. Only if you go into unpaid status, you would need to make arrangements to pay the health insurance premiums that would normally be deducted from your pay checks, or risk a lapse in coverage. The college will continue to pay the employer portion of benefits.
An employee who fails to return to work after their unpaid leave has been exhausted or expires will be required to reimburse the College for its share of health plan premiums, unless the reason the employee does not return is due to:
- Circumstances beyond the employee’s control; or
- The continuation, recurrence or onset of a serious health condition of the employee or the employee’s family member, or a serious injury or illness of a covered servicemember, that would otherwise entitle the employee to leave under FMLA.
For either reason indicated above, the employee must present certification from the health care provider stating that either the employee’s health or the health of the family member is in such a serious condition that returning to work in the future is not possible.
Failure to provide such certification within thirty (30) days following a request will enable the College to recover health benefit premiums paid during the unpaid period of the family and medical leave. If the employee is receiving payment under the employer’s short-term disability policy, the repayment requirement does not apply.
For purposes of the requirement to reimburse the College for not returning from unpaid leave, an employee must return to work for at least 30 calendar days to be considered having returned to work. An employee who transfers directly from taking leave to retirement, or who retires during the first 30 days after returning to work will be considered as having returned to work.
Return to Work
Failure to return to work on the designated return date following an authorized leave may subject the employee to disciplinary action up to and including termination, except as noted above. For a medical leave, an employee must present certification from their health care provider indicating that the employee is able to return to their job duties and list any restrictions, if applicable.
A FMLA packet may be requested from Human Resources by submitting a ticket. An employee may also initiate a Leave of Absence Request through Workday. The FMLA packet will contain more details and will include the necessary forms.