10/17/2003
Overview: The FMLA requires employers with 50 or more employees to provide up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave for employees who have worked for a year or more.
Leave Requirement: An employee is entitled to unpaid leave for any of the following reasons:
- to care for the employee's child after birth, or placement for adoption or foster care;
- to care for the employee's spouse, son or daughter, or parent, who has a serious health condition; or
- for a serious health condition that makes the employee unable to perform the employee's job.
An employer may require 30 days advance leave notice and medical certification.
Employment and Benefit Protections: Upon return from leave under FMLA, an employee should be restored to their original or an equivalent position with equivalent pay, benefits, and other employment terms.
An employee's use of leave under FMLA may not result in the loss of any employment benefit that accrued prior to the start of an employee's leave.
Employers must maintain the employee's health coverage under any "group health plan" during the employee's FMLA leave.
Notice: Employers should post, Your Rights Under the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 where employees can readily see it. A copy of this notice is available in the NFIB Legal Foundation's new Federal Employee Handbook for Independent Business.
