FMLA what does it mean? The Family Medical Leave Act helps those seeking medical treatment and rehabilitation services to help recovery from behavioral disorders and addiction. It is very helpful with the protection of your job while you’re away and focused on achieving sobriety.
The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) allows eligible employees up to 12 workweeks of leave without pay per year. The law also requires health benefits to be maintained throughout the leave period as if employees continued to work instead of taking leave. Employees are also entitled back to the same or an equivalent job at the conclusion period of FMLA leave. Additionally, it provides specific rights to military families. For example, eligible employees may take FMLA leave to attend specific events related to typical military deployments of family members. Additionally, they may have up to 26 week of leave in a single 12 month period to take care of a covered servicemember who suffers an illness or injury that is severe.
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Basically in essence, the FMLA entitles eligible employees of employers covered by the FMLA to take unpaid, job-protected leave for specified family and medical reasons, while also retaining group health insurance coverage under the same conditions and terms that would apply if the employee not taken a leave.
Covered Employers
The FMLA only is available to employers who meet certain requirements. An employer covered by the FMLA is:
- Private-Sector Employer: with more than 50 employees with 20 or more workweeks in the calendar year preceding or following the current year, which includes an employer who is a joint employer or successor in interest to a covered employer.
- Public Agency:Including the local government, federal or state agency, regardless of the number of employees it employs
- Elementary School, either private or public, or Secondary school:Regardless of the number of employees it employs
Eligible Employees
Only eligible employees are entitled to leave. A qualified employee is one who:
- Work for a covered employer;
- Has worked for the employer for at least 12 months;
- At least 1,250 hours of service for the employer over the 12 months preceding the date of the leave * *
- Works at a location in which the employer employs at minimum 50 employees within 75 miles.
The twelve months of employment don’t require been consecutive. This means that any time previously worked for the same employer (including jobs that are seasonal) could, in the majority of cases, be used to meet the 12-month requirement. But, if an employee has a break in service that lasted seven years or more, the period spent prior to the break will not be counted in the event that the break is due to service covered by the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA), or it is written contract with a collective bargaining agreement, outlining the employer’s plan to rehire the employee after the break-in service.
