FMLA & parental care
fitz62
1 Post
hi there. i am new to this forum but i look forward to your help. i have an employee who is currently applying for the FMLA. he wants to use it for the parental care after his wife's pregnancy.. does it matter that the baby is already born? at the time of his filing, the baby is already 5 weeks old which would mean that at the time of the actual leave, the baby will be 2 months +. is he still entitled to use the fmla in this given situation or is it too late. i know that parents are entitled to 12 weeks but i am not sure if its 12 weeks from the date the baby was born, or just any 12 weeks for care of the infant. thanks.
Comments
If the employee is taking leave to bond with a healthy baby, the FMLA just says that the leave must be taken within one year of the birth. Also, this leave has to be taken all at once--no intermittent leave. But, if the baby is sick, the employee may qualify for leave for a family member's serious health condition. In that case, he can take intermittent leave and there's no one-year time limit.
Hope this clarifies things.
I'll adjust a bit what the other poster said. If this is time that we fall under bonding you can disallow intermittent leave. However, if you want to allow intermittent or reduced leave you can--you juts do not have to.