Unpaid Leave and FMLA

UNPAID LEAVE

Employees may be eligible for unpaid leave via the Family Medical Leave Act. 

What IS FMLA?

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is a federal law that provides eligible employees with unpaid, job-protected leave for specified family and medical reasons. You may be eligible take up to a combined 12 weeks total of protected leave in a 12-month period for one or more of the following reasons:

• The birth of a son or daughter or placement of a son or daughter with the employee for adoption or foster care, and to bond with the newborn or newly-placed child,

• To care for a spouse, son, daughter, or parent who has a serious health condition, including

• incapacity due to pregnancy and for prenatal medical care,

• A serious health condition that makes the employee unable to perform the essential functions of their job, including incapacity due to pregnancy and for prenatal medical care, or

• Any qualifying reasons arising out of the fact that a spouse, son, daughter, or parent is a

• military member on covered active duty or call to covered active duty status.

If you need to care for a covered service member with a serious injury or illness, you may be eligible to take up to a combined total 26 work weeks of leave during a single 12-month period (increased from 12 work weeks).

If you have day-to-day responsibilities to care for or financially support a child, even if they have no biological or legal relationship to you, your leave request may qualify under FMLA. Grandparents or other relatives, such as siblings, may be eligible for FML when all other requirements are met. Essentially, if you will take on the role of a parent, the leave may qualify. Similarly, FML may apply if you were a child when the individual requiring care acted in the role of a parent to you. If you’re not sure the leave qualifies, speak to HR, as the responsibility of determining qualifying leaves falls to HR.

Why is FMLA important?

The FMLA requires that Revolution maintains your health benefits during leave and restore you to the same or equivalent job after returning from leave. The law sets requirements for notice, by both yourself and Revolution, and provides Revolution with the right to require certification of the need for FML in certain circumstances. The law protects you from interference and retaliation for exercising or attempting to exercise their FMLA rights. The law also includes certain record keeping requirements by Revolution.

Eligibility Requirements

FMLA requests can be verbal, written, or electronic, generally at least 30 days in advance if feasible. If a 30 day notice isn’t given when it is possible to do so, Revolution has the right to delay the leave at max 30 days from the day notice was given.

As an employee, you do not have to specifically request FMLA the first time you submit for a leave of absence, but you should provide enough information for Revolution to determine if the leave may fall under FMLA. If you request leave without providing any further details, HR may ask additional questions to determine if the leave is FMLA-qualifying and if eligible, begin the FMLA leave process. Dates or an estimation on leave amount should be provided if you have the information.

After one FML request has been submitted, any future FML requests must be requested by you, the employee. If you do not ask for FML for any other leaves, Revolution is not required to further inquire and determine eligibility.

All three of the following requirements must be met in order to fall under FMLA:

• Have worked for at least 52 weeks or 12 months as of the date the FML is set to start,

• Have at least 1,250 worked hours during the 52 weeks as of the date the FML is set to start, and 

• Work where Revolution has at least 50 employees within 75 miles of their report-to worksite.

This means full and part-time employees may be eligible for FMLA, along with temporary employees. If you work even 1 day a week, that week is counted toward the 52 week requirement. Paid holidays and time off (PTO) cannot be counted toward the 1,250 hours requirement, and it is up to Revolution (specifically HR) to calculate the hours worked - not the employee.

A sales employee’s worksite is the location they are assigned to or from which they receive assignments. For example, if an Ohio employee receives assignments from their manager located at Kedzie, they then meet the worksite requirement.

What do I do if I need to take a leave of absence?

With any leave, inform your manager as soon as you are able to, or submit your request to HR if needed. Your manager will then submit the leave request to Human Resources and they will contact you in regards to the specifics of the leave and any additional information needed. HR will in turn reach out to you for any missing information and let you know if the leave has been approved. If it is your first time requesting leave, HR will provide an answer within 5 business days of the request submission.

When informing HR of any possible leaves, either as a manager or the employee requesting time off, provide the following information:

• Requesting employee's full name and position

• Reasons for requesting the leave

• Dates requested for the leave if giving advance notice (or the date absence began if notice wasn’t an option)

• Attach or forward any certifications or medical information provided by the employee or if you are requesting leave for yourself, share the documents directly with HR. Do NOT share medical information with other employees outside of your immediate manager and HR and managers should not share information with any one other than HR, including other managers.

What if I qualify for a paid leave vs unpaid FML?

You can take paid leaves and FML at the same time under Revolution’s policies and they may be applied at the same time, For example, Revolution offers a paid parental leave program. If an employee qualifies for both FML and paid parental leave for a non-birth parent, the 12 weeks of FML can be paid time off of 6 weeks for parental leave and 6 weeks of unpaid leave. Any accrued paid time off will have to be applied during the FML, as well, until exhausted.

What happens next?

HR will inform both you and your manager if the leave was approved within 5 business days if it is FMLA qualifying. If the leave is not FMLA qualifying, we will then discuss other available options and next steps.

HR will also work with your manager on supplemental assistance needed during the leave, including but not limited to reviewing help from other departments, overtime allowances, or temporary assignments. The responsibility to have your work covered during your leave falls to management and HR, and we may ask you for SOP’s and other process information to ensure coverage.