Defining The 12 Month Period

Don D

Can somebody please tell me the practical difference in a 12-month period measured forward and a 12-month rolling period measured backward? No matter how you slice it, I seem to wind up with the same date both ways. It's like counting twelve hours forward from 12:00 a.m. and counting twelve hours backward from 12:00 a.m. Or is it?

Sidney

Good question! I always come up with the same date too, but everyone seems to talk about it as if it is two totally different ways of calculating.

WO

I, too, would like to feel comfortable on this question. I need to change our policy and know I want to use the rolling look back but am not completely comfortable.

Thanks.

System

I've never understood it. It seems to me that the people who wrote this part of the law had either too much or too little alcohol.

James Sokolowski
Senior Editor
M. Lee Smith Publishers

Hatchetman

I just got back from a seance where I got a full explanation from Albert Einstein. He said trying to figure out the difference was harder than trying to develop proof for the Unified Filed Theory" but this is what he said. I translate from the German..

"FMLA provison regarding the 12 months period are found in 29CFR825.200.

The specific wording if you look at the applicable subsections make a distinction between the two 12-month "variable" methods. One is a 12-month period measured forward from the date the employee's FMLA leave first begins and the other is a "rolling 12-month period" measured backward from the date an emplyees uses ANY FMLA leave.

For the forward measure, the reuglation states, "an employee would be entitled to 12 weeks of leave during the year beginning on the first date FMLA leave is taken; the next 12-month period would begin the first time FMLA leave is taken after completion of any previous 12-month period.

For the 'rolling backward measure' the regulation states, 'each time an employee takes FMLA leave the remaining leave entitlement would be any balance of the 12 weeks which has not been used during the immediately preceding 12 months. For example, if an employee has taken eight weeks of leave during the past 12 months, an additional four weeks of leave could be taken. If an employee used four weeks beginning February 1, 1994, four weeks beginning June 1, 1994, and four weeks beginning December 1, 1994, the employee would not be entitled to any additional leave until February 1, 1995. However, beginning on February 1, 1995, the employee would be entitled to four weeks of leave, on June 1 the employee would be entitled to an additional four weeks, etc.'

Under the forward measure, the employee has a NEW FMLA period after the 12 months of the first FMLA period expires. The second FMLA period begins with the start of the FMLA leave after the end of the first FMLA period. Thus, it seems to me, Albert, that if you use the foward period, and the employee takes the first FMLA leave beginning June 1, 2002, the 12 months obviously expires May 31, 2003. And the new FMLA period doesn't begin until the emloyee next goes on FMLA leave. Tehcnically that could be June 1, 2003. But if after May 31, 2003, he doesn't go on FMLA leave again until August 1, 2003, the FMLA year would then end July 31, 2004. If the employee is on FMLA leave when the first year expires, such as on May 31 and is still on FMLA leave on June 1, 2003, it seems to me, Albert, that it would be a new FMLA year, just like using a calendar year where the employee is on FMLA leave on December 31 and continues on FMLA leave on January 2.

Under 'rolling backward measure' it is clear that the employer would have to look back to the previous 12 months each time the FMLA leave is used to determine how many weeks remain."

That's what Einstein said to me through the medium.

At that point, Einstein got a tremendous headache and said that he was giving up on trying to discover a Unifed Field Theory -- he had been intellectually drained for the first time in his afterlife or even during his physical life.

Does anyone have any aspirin? I'm getting a headache, too. Well, there goes my work on the Unified Field Theory for the night.

Don D

I have read that Albert was the first president of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. Now I have proof! And he came up with this BEFORE the Beatles 'White Album'.