There are many people in the workplace that deal with chronic illnesses, however most have learned to deal with them and usually attempt to manage their symptoms around their work schedules. In essence, they don't complain about their illness for fear of losing their jobs. Many of these employees are unaware that they are eligible to receive Intermittent FMLA.
Since its inception many companies have learned to better understand the use of the act in order to protect their business model. There has been much controversy over the handling of the newest allowance for the FMLA act. In order to better understand what Intermittent FMLA is, you must first be able to understand what the current FMLA act is.
FMLA:
The Family Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) was created to protect employees from losing their jobs in the event that they needed extended periods of time off, to nurture either themselves or a close family member back to health, for an illness or injury that required an extended period of time to heal. The act stipulates that each employee could be eligible to receive up to 12 weeks of time off, in order to nurse an illness that would otherwise prevent the employee from being in attendance. The key factor of determining if an employee is eligible to be protected under the FMLA umbrella is how long the employee has been employed by company they work for. You must be considered a full time employee for no less than a period of 1 year or 52 weeks to considered eligible. There also must be superb medical documentation provided. It is very important to note that not all companies are required to offer FMLA to its employees. Those companies that spend 50 or less people are NOT required to offer its employees this benefit.
Each company has the ability of managing how they wish to manage your time off during your extended FMLA Leave. They can require you to contact them with a place recount on daily, weekly or monthly basis. Regardless, your time off is for you to heal, so use it wisely.
Intermittent FMLA:
Intermittent FMLA is much like extended FMLA with several key exceptions. The requirements for you to be eligible for approval are the same except that you must be diagnosed with a chronic condition or your treatments are on a continuous basis with no definite time period that they will stop to exist. Some examples of qualifying conditions are Chronic Asthma, Depression, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, the need for Dialysis, etc…
Your company is NOT required to approve intermittent FMLA regardless of the medical documentation. In the event that your intermittent absence would fabricate an undue hardship on the company, they can politely reject your inquire of. They cannot however reject an extended FMLA request based upon a hardship for the company. So completely understand that intermittent FMLA is a privilege and is not to be considered a benefit.
If you are approved for Intermittent FMLA, there are a few things you need to fully understand.
The time off you receive whenever you call in claiming your absence is due to Intermittent FMLA, needs to be related to your qualifying condition. In the event that you decide you really don't want to go to work one day, even though you are not troubled by your Intermittent FMLA condition and call out, then you are subject to termination.
Example: John S. suffers from acute chronic asthma and has been accepted for Intermittent FMLA by his company. John calls out claiming he needs to exhaust an FMLA day. What he failed to admit was that there is only one place buy the tickets for the upcoming concert he wants to benefit. So John goes to the mall and waits in the long line to buy his tickets. John's supervisor takes his lunch break to go buy some shoes for his son and decides to go to the mall for them. As John's supervisor walks past the music store, he sees John in the line and decides that he needs to address the situation immediately. John is guilty of abusing his Intermittent FMLA for his own personal gain. John makes his purchase and begins to leave the store when he sees his supervisor waiting for him. John is fired on the spot. And this is 100% legal because he abused the employee/employer relationship.
Intermittent FMLA approved employees are eligible to receive up to 1080 hours of time off, within a cyclic 12 month period, to care for their condition. Once you have exceeded the 1080 hours of time off, then you could be subject to termination in the event that you continue to call out excessively for your condition. The 1080 hours is the equivalent to the 12 weeks off that an extended FMLA employee would receive. Manage your time wisely. Cyclic means that if you first started your Intermittent FMLA on March 12, then on March 12th of the following year your 1080 hours could be refreshed to 1080 hours again. If there is any time leftover at the raze of the 12 month cycle then those hours are lost. This isn't a cellphone company. There are no rollovers.
All employees that are on both types of FMLA cannot be passed over for promotions, denied their annual raises or be omitted from benefits that other employees could receive. The only exception to this is bonuses. Bonuses are not considered a benefit and can be withheld from an employee on FMLA. Bonuses can come in many forms. Extra paid time off, additional fiscal funds or performance awards above and beyond annual performance appraisals are a few examples. Additionally, any employee that is on FMLA cannot have any of their medically related time off held against them during a performance appraisal. If you currently have or have had an appraisal recently and it documents your lost time off from work as a negative thing then be sure to describe the infraction to your Human Resources department immediately. It will be removed and your performance appraisal should be adjusted to reflect as though you were present during the entire performance evaluation cycle.
Because FMLA does not guarantee that you will receive pay during your time off, you have the option of whether you wish for the time off to be paid or unpaid. You can only receive pay in the event that you have short term disability or you have accumulated paid time off, such as vacation or sick pay. You are NOT required to use this paid time off benefit during your time off.
Without fail, be sure to follow the guidelines that your HR collect instructs you on using your FMLA. Your time off is your responsibility to track. It is not the employers, so keep a date book handy. It is wise to use a date book even if you are not utilizing FMLA.
The most important aspect of protecting yourself while using FMLA is to maintain open communications with your employer. It is not recommended to go more than 1 week without contacting your immediate supervisor as this leaves room for doubt regarding your status.
Just to clarify, both Intermittent and Extended FMLA are eligible for a cumulative period of protected time off, not to exceed 12 weeks within a 12-month calendar year. Each and every year an employee must be re-qualified for the employment protection to continue. An employer is allowed to require you to certify your eligibility in intervals of no less than 6 months apart. If you do not get re-certified as instructed you can be subject to corrective actions up to and including termination.
