The Essential Guide to Family & Medical Leave

86 | the essential guide to family and medical leave
However, your company has the option of agreeing to provide intermittent
or reduced-schedule parenting leave at the employee’s request, even though
the FMLA does not require it. In fact, if you have a company policy allowing
that type of leave, you should follow the policy. Your company may impose
restrictions on this type of leave that are different from those mandated by
the FMLA, because you’re agreeing to provide more than the law requires.
For example, although the FMLA requires employers to allow intermittent
leave in increments of one hour or less, you may require employees who use
intermittent leave for parenting to take it in larger increments (for example, a
full day at a time).
Policy Alert
If your company has a policy of offering intermittent or reduced schedule
leave for parenting leave, follow it. Your company is bound to follow its
own leave policies, even if they exceed FMLA obligations.
Example: A few years after her first request, Brenda makes a request similar to
the one described in the example above, but this time your company has a policy
of granting occasional days off or reduced workdays to employees with newborns.
Brenda specifically requests FMLA leave in two time segments, one in December and
one in February. You deny Brenda the second block of time off because it is not available
under the FMLA. Are you correct?
No. Where your company policy allows for intermittent leave for childbirth, you
must abide by the policy.
This limitation doesn’t apply to a woman who has a serious health
condition as a result of pregnancy or childbirth or a spouse caring for a
woman with such a condition. In those situations, the leave is not parenting
leave, so the employee is entitled to intermittent and reduced-schedule
leave. Likewise, if a child has a serious health condition, the employee
isn’t restricted by this provision and is eligible for intermittent or reducedschedule
leave (see Chapter 6, “Intermittent and Reduced-Schedule Leave”).