A Family and Medical Leave Act Checklist
A quick checklist for Family and Medical Leave Act requests as a way of making sure you’ve remembered all the key points.
As an employer, what are your responsibilities?
1. The employer is responsible for designating an employee’s leave as qualifying under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA).
2. An employee giving notice of the need for FMLA leave must explain the reasons for the leave to allow the employer to determine that the leave qualifies under the Act.
3. Where the employer is not able to confirm that the leave qualifies under FMLA, or has requested medical certification of a serious medical condition, the employer may make a preliminary designation, and so notify the employee. The employer’s request for medical certification must be in writing and state the consequences if it is not received within 15 days from the request.
4. For intermittent leave, the doctor’s certification must specify that there is medical necessity for intermittent leave.
5. The employer must give only one notice of the designation to the employee, unless the circumstances regarding the leave have changed.
6. The notice may be oral or in writing. If the notice is oral, it must be confirmed in writing no later than the following payday which is more than one week after the oral notice.
7. The written notice may be in any form, including a notation on the employee’s pay stub.
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New FMLA rules have recently been published and – I believe – become effective in January, 2009. You should review your FMLA policies against the new regulations as well. Primarily, they increase the communication and tracking burden on the employer.Kristie EvansHR/Business Consultant
Kristie – Thanks for your comment. Stay tuned! Rita already has a question about the new rules and will be responding early in 2009.
I concur with Krisite.
Here is a good starting point:
http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs28.pdf)
Best,
Marcos Anders
www.soscs.org