Legal Question in Medical Leave in Pennsylvania

Re: Re-calculating FMLA hours

You asked about FMLA leave.

You are confusing two issues hours worked versus length of time worked. A person is eligible for FMLA leave once they have worked for an employer for twelve months. Whether full time or not. That person may take FMLA leave for acceptable purposes in one day increments only. FMLA is not defined by hours. Period. Nor is a person's eligibility defined by hours. FMLA leave may not be used in hours or charged in hours.

An employee is entitled to 12 weeks leave not necessarily 40 hours of leave per week. Some companies work five 7.5 hour days per week and some work four 10 hour days. In either case an employee is entitled to a day of FMLA leave charged against a day of work.

Further, the 12 months leave period is how FMLA usage is measured. If a company uses one measure of FMLA it must use that measure for ALL FMLA users. It cannot apply FMLA leave to different employees in different ways.

At the latest, once the employee uses a day of FMLA leave the clock starts rolling. 365 days later that employee has a new 12 weeks of FMLA eligibility no matter how many hours they worked the previous year.

Hope this makes sense to you. But then why should be different than the rest of the Country? An employer should not calculate leave (FMLA, vacation, sick, holidays) in the hours of employees as hours not worked.

But employers that make such mistakes are a good source of business. They keep plaintiff's and defense attorneys busy.

Regards,

Roger