The Essential Guide to Family & Medical Leave

46 | the essential guide to family and medical leave
Keeping Track of Employees’ Work Hours
Because employees’ eligibility for FMLA leave depends on how long they’ve
worked for the company and how many hours they’ve worked, you must
keep track of all employees’ work hours. After all, an employee’s eligibility
can change over time. A newly hired full-time employee, for example,
won’t be eligible until he or she has worked for the company for at least 12
months. After a year, however, the employee may be eligible.
And it’s not just that employees who weren’t eligible can become eligible in
the future: An employee who qualified for FMLA leave in the past may no
longer be eligible later. Maybe the employee hasn’t worked enough hours in
the previous year or has already used up all his or her FMLA leave.
To make sure that an employee who requests leave is actually entitled to
it, keep good records of actual hours worked—and leave taken—for all of
your company’s employees. If your company’s records and/or a compensation
agreement with the employee don’t accurately reflect actual hours worked,
the actual hours (as shown by the employee’s records, calendars, and so on,
or by other employees’ recollections) will be used to determine eligibility.
Even unpaid time worked by an employee (for example, overtime worked by
an exempt employee not entitled to overtime pay) counts toward the 1,250-
hour requirement, so it is important to keep thorough records of all time
employees actually work, whether paid or not.
Most payroll systems provide a running total of hours worked by
employees, so you may already have adequate records of hours worked. If
your company keeps time sheets or requires employees to punch a time
clock, these records may provide all the documentation you need.
If you don’t have some readily available source of documentation, the best
practice is to keep a separate chart of hours worked for each employee. This
isn’t as complicated as it sounds. You can create a simple spreadsheet, like the
one below, and update each employee’s hours at the end of each pay period.
If you have a payroll system, you may even be able to export those numbers
directly. There is a blank copy of the form for your use in Appendix C and
on the CD-ROM at the back of this book.