The Essential Guide to Family & Medical Leave

chapter 3 | is the employee covered by the FMLA? | 45
Example: Though her regular schedule requires her to work 25 hours per week,
Yvonne has been on an FMLA-qualified reduced schedule of ten hours per week
for the past 12 weeks. Yvonne notifies you that she needs to continue her reduced
schedule. She has all the necessary paperwork and has not used up all her FMLA
leave time.
In preparation for meeting with Yvonne, you count up her hours for the past 12
months. Because of her reduced schedule, Yvonne has worked less than 1,250 hours
in the last 12 months. Can you deny Yvonne’s request for a continued reduced
schedule?
No. As long as Yvonne was qualified when she started leave and needs the reduced
schedule for the same condition, she has a right to take the full 12 weeks of leave, as
calculated for a part-time employee (discussed in Chapter 6).
The rules are different if an employee needs FMLA leave for a different
condition. In this situation, you must redetermine the employee’s eligibility.
If the employee’s previous intermittent leave has reduced the employee’s
hours below the 1,250-hour threshold, the employee is not eligible for leave
for an unrelated condition.
Example: Let’s go back to Yvonne, whose regular work schedule calls for 25 hours
a week, but who has been working only ten hours a week for the last three months.
Yvonne needed this intermittent leave to care for her father, who had a serious
health condition. Yvonne’s father is on the mend, but now Yvonne requests two
weeks of FMLA leave so she can have knee surgery. Is she entitled to this leave?
No. In the last 12 months, Yvonne has worked 10 hours a week for 12 weeks (120
hours), plus 25 hours a week for 40 weeks (1,000 hours), for a grand total of 1,120
hours. If she needed to stay on her reduced-leave schedule to continue caring for
her father, she would still be entitled to FMLA leave. Because she wants leave for an
unrelated condition, however, you must recalculate her hours—and she hasn’t met
the 1,250-hour threshold for FMLA eligibility.