The Essential Guide to Family & Medical Leave

chapter 3 | is the employee covered by the FMLA? | 41
Yes. Although Horacio has only worked for your company in eight of the last 12
months, he has worked 12 months total: Eight months during his first stint with your
company, and four months immediately before his heart attack. He has met this
eligibility requirement.
When to Make Your Count
The employee must have worked the 12 months as of the date that he or she
will start using FMLA leave, not as of the date the employee requests leave.
Note that this is a different from the first eligibility requirement, discussed
above: You must determine whether there are 50 employees within a 75-mile
radius on the date the employee requests leave, not the date leave will start.
Example: Anna began working for your company fulltime 11 months ago. Anna
requests leave to undergo back surgery beginning in one month. Is Anna entitled to
FMLA leave?
Yes, Anna is entitled to FMLA leave as of the date the leave will start. If she had
gone out for back surgery after working for your company for 11 months and needed
immediate time off to recuperate, she wouldn’t be covered by the FMLA.
Which Time Counts
If an employee works at all during a week, that week counts toward the 12-
month requirement. Unlike the hours worked requirement (discussed below),
the 12-month requirement measures how long the employee has been with
your company, not how many hours he or she has actually worked.
When determining whether an employee has worked at least 12 months,
you should count every week in which the employee shows up on the
payroll. It doesn’t matter whether the employee works full time or part time,
or whether the employee works intermittently (that is, the employee works
some weeks and not others): Once the employee reaches 52 weeks on the
payroll, the employee has met the requirement.
If you have joint employees—that is, employees who are employed both by
your company and by another company (such as a temp agency)—count all