FMLA and concurrent paid leave

Leslie

Just down loaded an item from the US Office of Personnel Management ([url]www.opm.gov/oca/fmla/[/url]) that says:

"The regulations no longer permit compensatory time off and credit hours earned under a flexible work schedule to be substitituted for leave without pay under the FMLA. However, an ee may continue to choose to substitute annual or sick leave, or advance annual or sick leave, consistent with current law and regulations for granting and using annual and sick leave. An ee may use earned compensatroy time off and credit hours in addition to the period of FMLA leave."

Help!!! Is this saying we can't run paid leave concurrent with FMLA? What happened to 12 weeks???

Hatchetman

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 08-19-02 AT 04:55PM (CST)[/font][p]Firstly, the US Office of Personnel Management handles federal employees, much in the same what that your HR office handles you and your co-workers. It is not the reuglatory agency for FMLA -- that's the US Department of Labor.

The statement you cited was put out by OPM in 1996.

No, the 12 weeks haven't disappeared. The question you are bringing up applies only to government employees, federal, state and local.

The issue starts with FLSA which permits government agencies to allow their non-exempt employees to accrue overtime at time and a half rather than receive pay at time and half.

FMLA then prohibits the government employer from requiring that this accrued overtime be used as paid leave under FMLA since accrued overtime is not considered a form of accrued paid LEAVE, such as paid vacation time is. However, if the government employee wishes to use it to cover the leave with pay then it may be used. But in that case, the time that is covered by the accrued overtime is NOT counted against the 12 weeks of FMLA leave.

Leslie

Thanks Hatchetman - I can breathe again!