Anne/FMLA

[Guest guest]

Anne,

FMLA is Family Medical Leave Act. It allows a person to take up to 12 weeks

unpaid leave for their own illness or injury or childbirth or for the illness or

injury of an immediate family member (spouse/child/parent). Companies with over

50 (it might be 20, but I think it is 50) have to offer FMLA to their employees.

Usually, it is a simple 2 page form that the doctor's office must fill out and

be returned to your employer. I would suggest keeping a photocopy of it as my

ex-company once lost mine.

If you have STD (Short Term Disability) benefits through your employer that will

pay a portion of your wage while you are out, it can be filed and run

concurrently with FMLA though most companies will try to tell you it can't.

FMLA can be split up and used for doctor's appointments; reduce your workload to

part-time while the doctor thinks it is necessary; used on a per-illness basis.

But, once your 480 hours runs out, the company can revert to their normal

absenteeism policy.

Also, you must first have about 7-8 months in the year prior to asking for FMLA.

If you got your job in July or later last year, you probably won't qualify for

FMLA.

To find out about your job's FMLA information, contact your benefits

administrator (could be called many things: Insurance Representative: Employee

Benefits Counselor) but they are usually in Human Resources or the main office.

Hope this helps some.

~ :-D

Re: Work meltdown disaster

Hi Em,

I work for the federal government and applying for the

FMLA has been made very easy and almost automatic

for us. When we fill out our leave slips, there is a

section that relates to FMLA--all we have to do is check

the box that says we want the hours we missed to fall

under the FMLA, and then check who it is for--ourselves

or a family member. We do NOT have to be out of leave

in order to do that (although of course I always am). If

we take more than 3 days off at a time, a medical

certificate is required. That's it.

I would ask whoever handles your payroll about this;

someone there should have been through training and

be able to answer your questions. Your Human

Resources people should have the information as well.

If you can't find anything, please email me and let me

know and I'll ask someone on my end what you have to

do.

Good Luck with this. I think you are allowed 270 hours

in any one year but can't swear to it.

Margaret

margd@...