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Yes, normally, is the brief reply set out in a brand new DOL opinion letter. An worker is permitted to make use of go away underneath the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA or Act) for work time spent in medical appointments both associated to their critical medical situation or these of a qualifying member of the family. Such FMLA go away time extends, in lots of circumstances, to journey time to or from a medical appointment, even in conditions the place the worker has not supplied the employer with a “medical certification” to assist the necessity for travel-related go away. However, not all worker journey circumstances will lead to coated go away underneath the FMLA. Exceptions are defined beneath.
FMLA Leave Basics
The FMLA entitles eligible workers of coated employers to take twelve workweeks of unpaid, job-protected go away in a twelve-month interval due to a critical well being situation that makes the worker unable to carry out the capabilities of their place. Eligible workers are additionally permitted to make use of FMLA go away with a view to look after sure members of the family if the member of the family has a critical well being situation, together with when a member of the family is unable to move himself or herself to the physician for remedy.
A fundamental tenet of the FMLA is that an worker can use protected go away for time spent in medical appointments to diagnose, monitor, handle or deal with the worker’s medical situation. It follows, subsequently, that worker journey time to a medical supplier’s location can also be protected go away when required to acquire care and persevering with remedy. That would even be true when the worker requires journey time with a view to look after sure members of the family with a critical well being situation by touring with them to medical appointments to acquire medical remedy.
Employees are in a position to make use of such FMLA go away intermittently, i.e., in separate durations of time lasting from as brief as an hour or extra to a number of weeks, reasonably than in a single steady block of time, when associated to a single situation, sickness, or harm.
When is Employee Travel Time Protected by the FMLA?
To illustrate these FMLA ideas, the DOL supplied the next examples:
Example 1: An FMLA-eligible worker works every day from 9:00 a.m. to five:00 p.m. She requests intermittent go away to move herself to or from a medical facility to finish her dialysis remedy. Her drive to the medical facility is about half-hour. The worker was in a position to schedule the appointment at 4 p.m. every day to attenuate the influence to her employer. Here, the worker’s half-hour of journey to her appointment qualifies for FMLA go away, together with any time that elapses whereas she receives remedy, to the tip of her scheduled workday at 5:00 p.m.
Example 2: An worker eligible for FMLA go away requests intermittent go away to take his mom to her biweekly physician’s appointments for the remedy of a critical well being situation. He supplied his employer with a medical certification explaining that his mom should attend an estimated 30-minute appointment each different week. Every different week, the worker leaves his office, drives to his mom’s home, picks her up and drives her to her appointment, and drives her dwelling earlier than returning to work. The period of time he must journey, watch for his mom’s appointment to start and finish, and help his mom when she returns dwelling, varies, although he sometimes makes use of two to 2 and a half hours each different week. The time the worker wants is FMLA-protected and counts in opposition to his FMLA entitlement.
When is Employee Travel Time Not Covered by the FMLA?
While the FMLA typically offers protected go away to workers to acquire care and remedy – together with time spent touring to acquire such care and remedy – the Act doesn’t defend worker misuse of that go away. Absences that aren’t straight linked with a critical well being situation usually are not coated by the FMLA and the worker could also be subjected to disciplinary motion primarily based upon such absences. For instance, FMLA-protected go away doesn’t embody journey to or from, or stops for, or different actions unrelated to or linked with remedy for a critical well being situation. The DOL supplied these situations:
Example 3: An worker requests go away from work to accompany his youngster on his youngster’s highschool band journey. The youngster has a power critical well being situation however doesn’t have any episodes of incapacity or want for care through the journey. Any time the worker takes off work to journey on the band journey wouldn’t be coated by the FMLA as a result of the go away isn’t associated to his youngster’s critical well being situation.
Example 4: An FMLA-eligible worker has a critical well being situation and takes intermittent go away on Friday afternoons for two hours to go to bodily remedy. She leaves work, travels to the bodily remedy heart, attends bodily remedy, and returns to work most days. One Friday, the worker requests go away for 3 hours, together with an additional hour with a view to go by the library and do grocery purchasing after her bodily remedy. While the two hours the worker wants for her bodily remedy is FMLA- protected, the time she spends in actions not associated to her critical well being, i.e., going to the library and grocery purchasing, wouldn’t be FMLA-protected go away and wouldn’t depend in opposition to her go away entitlement.
The Takeaways
The FMLA prohibits employers from interfering with, restraining, or denying an worker from utilizing FMLA-protected go away. To keep away from operating afoul of the statute’s mandates, employers should precisely credit score workers for FMLA-protected go away utilization. As proven above, employers don’t have to credit score all worker journey time associated to acquiring remedy of a FMLA-covered medical situation. A choice to disclaim such go away must be undertaken fastidiously, except there are clear indications that the worker is claiming go away time for actions that merely don’t have any relationship to acquiring medical remedy.
If you have got questions on your insurance policies and practices to make sure compliance with the FMLA or different federal or state employment legal guidelines, please contact Doug Taylor, at [email protected] or (703) 525-4000.
This article is for informational functions solely and doesn’t comprise or convey authorized recommendation. Consult a lawyer. Any views or opinions expressed herein are these of the writer and usually are not essentially the views of any consumer.
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