The Essential Guide to Family & Medical Leave

chapter 7 | Giving Notice and Designating Leave | 123
This chapter covers the FMLA’s informational requirements: what
information you and the employee must give each other when an
employee takes or requests time off that might be protected by
the FMLA. The heavier burden lies with you, and for good reason: Many
employees don’t know what the law is or what their rights are. In fact, your
employees may never have heard of the FMLA. This means that employees
may come to you requesting leave, without knowing that they may be legally
entitled to it, and legally obligated to give you information so that you can
properly determine whether the FMLA applies.
Your company’s informational requirements begin with hanging a poster
on the FMLA and providing general information about the law in your
policies; Chapter 2 explains how to comply with these obligations. Once an
employee requests leave, however, additional requirements kick in. You must
know enough about the FMLA to figure out whether it applies, asking the
employee for more information if necessary. You must designate the leave as
FMLA leave and notify the employee that you’ve done so. You must also give
the employee information on a long list of topics, specially geared toward the
employee’s leave situation.
Sounds like a lot of meetings and paperwork, doesn’t it? While it is a
significant responsibility to comply with all these requirements, there are
ways to streamline the process. We tell you how below and give you some
approved forms to use.
Designating Time Off as FMLA Leave
When an employee comes to you requesting medical or parenting leave, the
first important duty that you have is to designate the leave, in writing, as
FMLA leave. If you don’t, FMLA leave has not started, and you’re allowing
the employee to take leave without reducing the employee’s 12-week
entitlement. For example, say an employee takes two weeks off to care for an
ill family member. If you don’t designate that time as FMLA leave and the
employee wants 12 weeks off to bond with a new child later in the same year,
you will have to grant the request.