Fmla

The Family and Medical Leave Act

In 1993, Congress enacted the Family Medical Leave Act.   The FMLA guarantees eligible employees who work for covered employers up to twelve weeks of unpaid leave in a twelve month period for the following reasons:
• for the birth and care of a newborn child
• adoption or foster care of a child
• to care for an immediate family member with a serious health condition
• to care for the employee’s own serious health condition which renders the employee unable to do his/her job.
The FMLA defines immediate family member as an employee’s child (including foster and/or adopted children), spouse, or parent.   The FMLA is one of the Acts that helps workers successfully balance both work and family responsibilities (www.dol.gov).
The Family Medical Leave Act defines a serious health condition as:
(1) An illness, impairment, injury, or physical or mental condition that involves
                      either a period of incapacity or treatment with inpatient care.   Inpatient
                      care could be when someone is admitted into the hospital or residential
                      facility
                      or
(2)       Being incapacitated and continually being treated by a doctor or other
health care provider because of:
(a) a health condition lasting more than 3 successive days (and treatment/continuing regimen of treatments)
    or
(b) prenatal or pregnancy care
or
(c) a severe chronic health condition which persists over an extended period of time, involves periodic health care appointments, and may entail incapacity.
or
(d) an eternal or long-term condition which does not have effective
treatment, such as cancer, for example (www.dol.gov).

Covered employers are companies (private or public) which employ a minimum of 50 employees for each working day during each of 20 or more calendar workweeks within the calendar year.   The 20 calendar weeks do not have to be successive.    
Eligible employees...