The Family and Medical Leave Act is one of the bedrock federal employment laws under HR’s purview. Eligible employees are entitled to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave for certain family and medical reasons, such as the birth of a new child or caring for a serious health condition, be it one’s own or that of an immediate family member.
According to employment law specialists, however, FMLA administration can easily fall by the wayside, particularly given the extensive administrative process of verifying an employee’s eligibility, certifying their leave and arranging the logistics around their return to work.
The law also intersects with paid time off policies that may introduce further wrinkles, such as whether employers may run different leave allotments concurrently. Additional concerns involve intermittent leave under the FMLA, as well as the law’s interaction with the Americans with Disabilities Act and similar state and local laws.
All the while, federal courts continue to hash out the FMLA’s requirements and have opined on employers’ FMLA compliance policies in several cases this year. Below, HR Dive has provided a recap of recent court decisions involving FMLA claims, as well as a recent column exploring the law’s location-based eligibility requirements.
