Family Medical Leave
Family Medical Leave Calculation – “Roll Back” versus “Hire Date Anniversary” Method
The federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), provides eligible employees with 12 work weeks of qualifying leave within a 12-month period. Effective November 1, 2017, Balsz ESD #31’s method for calculating the 12-month period will change to a “rolling” 12 month period measured backward from the date an employee first uses any FMLA leave. This announcement fulfills the requirement to provide 60-days’ notice of the change to all employees. During the transition period, employees taking FMLA between now and November 1, 2017 will do so under whichever method yields the greatest benefit to the employee.
“Hire Date Anniversary” Method – Balsz ESD #31 currently uses a “hire date anniversary” method for calculating an eligible employee’s 12 week entitlement of Family Medical Leave (FMLA) during a 12-month period. Using this method an employee is entitled to 12 weeks of leave during the year beginning on their yearly work anniversary date. The next 12-month eligibility period would begin on the next yearly work anniversary date and so on.
“Rolling” Method – Effective November 1, 2017, Balsz ESD #31’s method for calculating the 12 month period will change to a “rolling” 12-month period measured backward the date an employee first uses any FMLA leave. With this method, the process would be to “count or look backwards” for 12 months from any given “request date” and total the amount of FMLA uses (if any), subtract from the 12 week maximum. This balance is the amount of FMLA leave currently available for use.
Example 1: An employee requests to begin FMLA leave on May 1, 2017. Looking backwards to May 1, 2016, the employee used no FMLA leave. Therefore, the employee has a balance of 12 weeks of FMLA leave that can be utilized for a qualifying event.
Example 2: An employee requests leave to begin June 1, 2017. Looking backward to June 1, 2016, the employee used 4 weeks of FMLA in July 2016 and 4 weeks in October 2016 for a total of 8 weeks over the last year. The employee is entitled at the time of this request to 4 weeks of FMLA (12 week entitlement minus the 8 weeks already taken).
Please contact your Human Resource Specialist, Marlon Flamenco, MFlamenco@balsz.org, if you have any questions regarding this notice.