Leave time for family illness

GLC

We currently have a policy called Emergency Time for employees to use when they need to take time for to care for family members who are sick. We are looking to change the name to something else that doesn't sound to much like FMLA. We are considering calling it Family Emergency Time. I was wondering what some of you call leave time to care for family.

Don D

I've known it to be called 'sick leave', personal time off (PTO), Leave Of Absence and Vacation. I don't understand the necessity to call it other than what it is. If it is in fact leave time to take care of sick family, why the need to insert the word 'emergency'? That further complicates the situation by imposing the need to define emergency. FMLA is already federal law. If your state does not impose additional time off, are you doing that as an employer?

Caroliso

Our leave is called Family Care and Crisis Leave. Our policy predates and is more generous than FMLA. The "crisis" part includes paid time off for non medical emergencies, such as time someone might need to take off to wrap up issues related to settling the estate of a deceased family member that is beyond our approved bereavement leave of 4 days, or time to be with a family member during the final days before an expected death. It rarely gets used for other than FMLA type instances but the few times it has have gained us so much in goodwill that I'm not out to change it, although i know it has potential for abuse.