The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) applies to any private-sector employer with 50 or more employees within a 75-mile radius of the workplace, in 20 or more workweeks in the current or previous calendar year.  To be eligible, employees must have been employed for at least 12 months for a minimum of 1,250 hours in the previous 12-month period.

FMLA allows eligible employees up to 12 work weeks of unpaid leave during any 12-month period, with job reinstatement privileges. This means that the employee must return to the same or an equivalent position once their leave period is over. Employers also need to be aware that some state laws expand family leave benefits set out by the FMLA, increasing paid leave and offering wider coverage.

Your managers need to put their FMLA ears on when an employee asks for leave, especially for unforeseen circumstances.  Employees do not need to say, “I need FMLA leave.”  They don’t even need to mention FMLA.

While employees must give general reasons for the leave request, it’s the duty of the manager or supervisor to identify leave requests which qualify as job-protected FMLA leave.  This is why it is important to teach supervisors how to listen for leave requests that might fall under the FMLA umbrella.  As a recent court case showed, even general requests such as “I have a family emergency” could trigger FMLA protections. 

FMLA regulations require an employee to provide you only a “short and plain statement” of their need for leave.  If you determine later that the employee  (or family member) didn’t have a serious health condition that would qualify for leave, you can withdraw your FMLA leave approval at that time.