The Essential Guide to Family & Medical Leave

122 | the essential guide to family and medical leave
Chapter Highlights
If an employee’s requested leave qualifies as
FMLA leave, you should designate it as such
in writing.
Whenever you have reason to believe that an
employee’s requested leave may be FMLAqualified,
you can and should preliminarily
designate it as FMLA leave, even if the employee
does not request it; you can withdraw
a preliminary designation if further investigation
shows that the FMLA does not apply.
Your company must provide individualized
FMLA information to each employee requesting
leave that may be FMLA-qualified, explaining
the employee’s rights under the FMLA and
the effect of the employee’s failure to comply
with the FMLA and company rules.
Employees requesting FMLA leave must
give you 30 days’ notice of the need for
leave, unless:
• the leave is not certain in time
• there is a change in circumstances, or
• your company’s leave plan provides for less
than 30 days’ notice.
An employee requesting FMLA leave that is
not foreseeable must provide notice as soon
as practicable, usually within two business
days after learning that he or she needs leave.
Your company is allowed to discipline an
employee for failing to provide proper notice
of FMLA leave but can’t deny the leave.
The employee requesting FMLA leave must
give you sufficient information to determine
that the FMLA may apply, but the information
doesn’t have to be detailed or even refer to
the FMLA.