Counting Work Weeks and Additional FMLA Days

Rockie

Okay....employees are entitled to 12 workweeks or 480 hours of FMLA leave per year.

Case in Point: Employee takes 1 weeks of FMLA and then a couple of days the next week. I am assuming we count the first week as one week of FMLA leave and then the two days as intermittent. Are you guys counting "days" or "hours" on intermittent leave?

When counting workweeks, I am assuming we use 5 days/week if this is what the person works.

What if you have a person who works 32 hours/week? How do you guys handle this?

We are getting more and more flexible type work schedules and I just want to make sure we are counting this correctly.

Thanks!

POPEYE

The easiest and most effective way to keep track is by the hour. The "broad intent", or so I've been told, of the 12 week verbiage of the act was based on a 40 hour week. With that mindset, we track by the hour. If you have flexible schedules either less than or more than 8 hours a day, you still can easily capture and document the hours.

System

Correct me if I'm wrong, Popeye. I thought it was possible to be entitlted to more than 480 hours if the ee's schedule per week was greater than 40. An example would be a dispatcher who works regularly 44 hours one week and 40 the next. They are still entitled to the full 12-week leave. If they regularly work 32 hours per week, you still don't have to allow more than 12 weeks, even if they have not accumulated 480 hours. For intermittent leave, the 480 hours applies.

Ah, maybe I should have posted this as a question. But this is my understanding.

marc

12 weeks of their normal work week is the way I calculate the target. If their normal work week is 32 hours, then 12 weeks times 32 is 384 hours. I only use the 384 if intermittent leave is used.

Inversely, if the normal work week is 42 hours, they would get 504 hours for intermittent leave purposes. If they worked 30 hours in a week and took the rest of it off, then 12 hours would apply to FML.

If however they take entire weeks off, that would translate to 42 hours per week in the second case and 30 hours per week in the first.

Don D

Under 29 CFR 825.200, "How much leave may an employee take?", the language mentions 12 workWEEKS. I take that literally to mean the employee's assigned or normal workweek. (don't you exempts start chiming in that you work 90 hour weeks!)

There is no mention of 480 hours although that is also the figure I have always used as a maximum. I agree that if I had a 32 hour employee, he would not get a 40 hour week of FML.

Kai

It is my understanding that the maximum number of hours available for FMLA leave, per week, is based on the number of hours the employee is regularly scheduled to work during the week(s) for which FMLA is taken. For instance, our fire service employees who work 24 hours on 48 hours off will have far more then 480 hours FMLA leave during a twelve week period. Conversely, a part time employee will have less hours.

K