The Essential Guide to Family & Medical Leave

42 | the essential guide to family and medical leave
of the weeks when they have been employed by either joint company. For example,
if an employee of a temporary agency was placed with your company
six months ago and worked for the temporary agency for a year before that,
that employee has satisfied the 12-month employment requirement.
Time employees spend on leave counts towards the 12-month minimum
only if:
• the employee took leave for military service (see Chapter 11 for more
information), or
• your company provided compensation or benefits during the employee’s
leave.
EXAMPLE: Brett has worked full time for your company for one year but spent two
months of that year on company-approved, paid disability leave. Brett now requests
leave for a serious health condition. Is Brett entitled to FMLA leave?
Yes, because he has worked at least 12 months, including the paid leave time.
However, there are a couple of time periods that don’t count toward the
12-month requirement. These include:
• Suspensions. If an employee was suspended, that suspension period
doesn’t count toward the 12 months.
• Layoff periods. If you lay off an employee and then recall that employee
later, you don’t usually count the layoff period when calculating whether
the employee has worked for 12 months.
Step 3: Has the Employee Worked Enough Hours?
In addition to simply being employed with your company for at least 12
months, an employee seeking FMLA leave must have worked at least 1,250
hours in the 12-month period immediately preceding the leave. As with the
12-month requirement, you must calculate whether an employee has worked
1,250 hours as of the date leave is scheduled to begin—not the date the
employee requests leave.