Transcript Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA)

Family Medical Leave Act
• What is FMLA?
– "FMLA" refers to the Family and Medical Leave Act, which is a
federal law that guarantees qualifying employees up to 12
workweeks of unpaid leave each year with no threat of job
loss. FMLA also requires that employers covered by the law
maintain the health benefits for eligible workers just as if they
were working.
Family Medical Leave Act
• The Federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the
Wisconsin Family and Medical Leave Act (WFMLA) provide
you with the right to take job-protected leave with
continued medical benefits when you need time off from
work to care for yourself or a family member who is
seriously ill, to care for a newborn or newly adopted child,
or to attend to the affairs of a family member who is called
to active duty in the military.
• You may be eligible for more generous leave provisions.
Leave taken for FMLA-eligible reasons must run
concurrently under FMLA, WFMLA, and other leave
provisions available. The leave available under the various
provisions is exhausted simultaneously. To understand how
the integration of laws with state and university policies
affects you, please contact your human resources office.
Family Medical Leave Act
Applying for FMLA
• Once you know you need to take a leave of absence that will be
covered by the Wisconsin and/or Federal Family and Medical
Leave Acts, you should contact your supervisor and/or human
resources department so they can provide you the proper
paperwork and determine how much paid leave you have
available for use.
Eligibility
• In order to be eligible for family and medical leave, you
need to work a specific number of hours during the
year. For eligibility purposes, all State of Wisconsin
agencies, including the University of Wisconsin System
are considered one employer.
Family Medical Leave Act
– WFMLA
• You must have worked for the State for at least:
• 52 consecutive weeks; and
• 1,000 hours during the preceding 52-week period. Paid
leave used counts towards the 1,000 worked.
Family Medical Leave Act
– FMLA
• You must have worked for the State for at least:
• 12 months (months do not need to be consecutive); and
• 1,250 hours during the preceding 12-month period. Only
actual hours worked count towards the 1,250 hours.
• Eligibility for WFMLA and FMLA is determined by
considering all hours worked up to your first day of leave.
Family Medical Leave Act
• Employee Request for W/FMLA (UWS 80) – Complete and submit
this form to your institution to request W/FMLA-protected leave.
If you request a WFMLA leave to care for a domestic partner or a
domestic partner’s parent, you must complete this form in order
to certify the domestic partnership for WFMLA purposes. Please
request this form as soon as you know of the need for leave.
• Certification by Health Care Provider for Employee’s Serious
Health Condition (UWS 82) – Your health care provider must
complete this form to certify your serious health condition if you
are taking a concurrent FMLA and WFMLA leave. Please have the
physician return this form to the HR Department as soon as it is
completed.
Family Medical Leave Act
• WFMLA Certification form (UWS 82a) – If you are taking a WFMLA
leave only – you should use this form to certify your own serious
health condition.
• Certification by Health Care Provider for a Family Member’s
Serious Health Condition (UWS 83) – Your family member’s health
care provider must complete this form to certify their serious
health condition if you are taking a concurrent FMLA and WFMLA
leave. Please have the physician return this form to the HR
Department as soon as it is completed.
Family Medical Leave Act
• Certification of Qualifying Exigency for Military Family Leave (UWS
84) – Complete and submit this form to your institution to certify
that an exigency was created because a family member is on
covered active military duty or has been notified of an impending
call or order to active duty to a foreign country or international
waters. The family member may be in either the regular or
reserve component of the Armed Forces.
• Certification of Serious Injury or Illness of a Current
Servicemember or Veteran for Military Caregiver Leave (UWS
85) – Complete and submit this form to your institution to
request FMLA-protected leave to care for a current military
service member or veteran, who is a family member or next of
kin, who is seriously ill or injured due to military service.
Family Medical Leave Act
Leave Entitlement
•
•
University Staff Employees: based on a calendar year.
Faculty, Academic Staff and Limited Appointees: based on a fiscal year.
If leave is taken for a child, a child is defined as a son or daughter who is
biological, adopted, a foster child, a stepchild, a legal ward or a child of a
person standing in loco parentis to the child. If you are in an in loco parentis
relationship with a child, this means that you consider yourself to have a
parental relationship to a child but you do not have a legal or biological
relationship to the child.
• WFMLA
– Eligible employees are entitled to:
• Up to six weeks in a calendar for the birth or adoption of a child,
to begin within 16 weeks of the birth or placement of that child
(no more than one 6-week period per event).
• Up to two weeks in a calendar year to care for a child, spouse,
domestic partner, or parent (including parents of your spouse or
domestic partner) with a serious health condition.
• Up to two weeks in a calendar year for your own serious health
condition.
Family Medical Leave Act
Leave Entitlement (cont)
• FMLA
– Eligible employees are entitled to:
• Up to twelve weeks of leave in a calendar year for:
– the birth of a child and to care for the newborn child within
one year of birth (no more than one 12-week period per
event);
– the placement of a child for adoption or foster care with
the employee and to care for the newly placed child within
one year of placement (no more than one 12-week period
per event);
– to care for the employee’s spouse, child, or parent who has
a serious health condition;
– a serious health condition that makes the employee unable
to perform the essential functions of his or her job;
– any qualifying exigency arising out of the fact that the
employee’s spouse, son, daughter or parent is a member of
the active or reserve component of the Armed Forces and
is on covered active duty or has been notified of a call to
active duty in a foreign country or international waters; or
Family Medical Leave Act
Caring for Military Members
•
Up to twenty-six weeks of leave during a single 12-month period to
care for a current military service member or eligible veteran* with a
serious injury or illness if the employee is the service member’s or
veteran’s spouse, son, daughter, parent, or next of kin (military
caregiver leave).
– Leave provisions to care for an injured or ill military service
member are based on a rolling 12 month schedule.
– In order to be eligible to take a FMLA-covered leave to care for a
veteran, the veteran must have been honorably discharged
within the 5-year period before the family member first takes
military caregiver leave.
• Intermittent Leave
– An employee may take WFLMA or FMLA on a intermittent or
reduced schedule basis. Only the amount of leave actually taken
will count against leave entitlements. Contact your human
resources or benefits office for more information.
Family Medical Leave Act
Substitution of Paid Leave
You may choose to take your W/FMLA leave as paid or unpaid. Your
benefits and continuous service will be uninterrupted regardless of
whether or not you take your W/FMLA paid or unpaid. If you take
your W/FMLA as unpaid, you will still be responsible for the
employee share of your premiums.
Family Medical Leave Act
WFMLA
– Under WFMLA, you may elect to substitute any type of paid leave (e.g.
vacation, sick leave or personal holiday), even if you are typically not allowed
to use that type of leave.
– Example – under WFMLA, a parent can use six weeks of any type of paid
leave, including sick leave, due to the birth of child. This is not a valid reason
to use sick leave per UW policy, but since the leave is covered by WFMLA, you
can use sick leave for this reason.
Family Medical Leave Act
FMLA
– Under FMLA, you may elect to substitute paid leave only per the rules
governing that type of leave. Any type of paid leave, except sick leave, can be
used at any time during a FMLA leave. Sick leave may only be used per UW
policy under FMLA.
– When WFMLA and FMLA run concurrently, you may follow the leave
substitutions provisions under WFMLA.
– Example – an employee may not use sick leave to care for a new child under
UW policy while using FMLA. However, if the employee qualifies for WFMLA
and FMLA at the same time, the employee may use sick leave to care for a
new child under the provisions of WFMLA.
Family Medical Leave Act
For further information on FMLA/WFMLA, please see the below links:
This information along with the forms and publications:
https://www.wisconsin.edu/ohrwd/benefits/leave/fmla/
The University of Wisconsin System UPS Operational Policy:
https://www.wisconsin.edu/ohrwd/download/policies/ops/bn4.pdf
Questions