FMLA

The information contained in this article is not intended as legal advice and may no longer be accurate due to changes in the law. Consult NHMA’s legal services or your municipal attorney.

Employees generally take “family leave” from their jobs when they need time away to care for a sick family member or to care for a newborn child, and “sick leave” or “medical leave” when they are sick themselves. In New Hampshire, employers are not required to provide employees with paid family or sick leave – employees may be entitled to 12 weeks of job-protected family and medical leave under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”), but that leave is unpaid.

Over 20 years have passed since the enactment of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Over this time period, federal courts have issued numerous decisions which interpret and explain what Congress intended when the law was enacted and how the federal Department of Labor (DOL) regulations promulgated under the statute should be applied. At this point, employers should feel confident that the basic framework of the law is no longer in dispute. And then along comes the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision in in Escriba v.

In my December 2013 article, I discussed the concept of “employee status.” Every employee has a status: either “active”, “on leave”, “former”, or “conditionally terminated” (terminated, but with a contingent right to return). Understanding these statuses is a key to understanding the relationship between the FMLA, Workers’ Compensation and Disability benefits.

FMLA is a Status