The Essential Guide to Family & Medical Leave

74 | the essential guide to family and medical leave
• arranging for care or changes in care (for example, making arrangements
for a family member to move into an assisted living facility or hiring
home health care aides to care for a family member), and
• filling in for others providing care (an employee might provide care two
days a week, when the family member’s usual caregiver takes time off, or
might share caretaking responsibilities with other family members). (See
29 CFR § 825.116.)
Unless it is needed for the family member’s comfort and assurance, simply
spending time with a family member does not qualify as care. For example,
an employee who takes time off to visit his ailing parents would not be
entitled to FMLA leave unless he was needed to actually care for his parents
while there.
Lessons from the
Real World
Calling on the phone does not constitute care.
H. Charles Tellis worked for Alaska Airlines in Seattle as a maintenance mechanic.
He told his manager that he needed a couple of weeks off because his
wife was having difficulties with her pregnancy. The manager suggested that
he take FMLA leave and told him to pick up the appropriate forms at the
company’s benefits office.
Tellis started his leave and requested the forms. The next day, his car broke
down. He decided to fly to Atlanta, where he owned another car, and drive
back home. This trip took him four days. While he was gone, his wife gave
birth; his sister-in-law took care of the family while he was gone. Alaska Airlines
eventually terminated Tellis’s employment, based in part on his absence.
Tellis sued, arguing that his time off was covered by the FMLA because he was
caring for his wife. The 9 th Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed: It found that he
did not provide any actual care while he was on his trip. Although Tellis claimed
that he gave his wife moral support and comfort by phoning her from the road,
the court found that this was not what the FMLA means by care taking.
Tellis v. Alaska Airlines, 414 F.3d 1045 (9th Cir. 2005).