Chapter 14
FAMILY AND MEDICAL LEAVE ACT
Summary
- Employers who employ 50 or more employees for 20 or more workweeks in the current or preceding calendar year are covered by the Act’s requirements.
- This statute became effective for covered employers August 5, 1993, unless an employer has a collective bargaining agreement. For employers with a collective bargaining agreement, the Act became effective on the earlier of the termination of the agreement or February 5, 1994.
- Employees employed by a covered employer for at least 12 months, who worked at least 1,250 hours during the past 12 months, and are employed at a worksite where 50 or more employees are employed by the employer within 75 miles of that specific worksite are entitled to benefits under the Act.
- Covered employers must provide eligible employees with 12 workweeks of leave during the applicable 12-month period for childbirth, adoption, to care for a spouse, son, or daughter with a “serious health condition”, or because of a “serious health condition” which renders the employee unable to perform his job. While leave taken because of childbirth and adoption should be taken in one segment of time, leave taken because of a “serious health condition” can be taken on an intermittent basis.
- The employer can require certain medical certifications and notice (when the necessity for leave is foreseeable) of an employee’s intent to take leave guaranteed by the Act.
- Leave provided by the Act need not be with pay.
- An eligible employee who utilizes leave guaranteed by the Act is entitled to be restored to his prior position or an equivalent position with equivalent employment benefits, pay, and other terms and conditions of employment upon return.
- Employer must continue health care benefits for the duration of leave taken under the Act on the same basis as if the employee had continued working.
- Supervisors, managers, and human resources directors may be held individually liable for violations of the Act.