Recently in Family Medical Leave / Time Off Category

You get 12 workweeks of FMLA leave. But as you may know, 12 workweeks of time off leaves plenty of room for interpretation as to exactly how much time you get off. This is especially true when you have already taken some time off in the year.

The general rule is that you are charged leave for your actual usage, according to the Department of Labor. So if you take leave for one full workweek, you will be charged one workweek.

On the other hand, if you take intermittent leave or only need two days off in the week, you should only be charged for that proportion of that workweek for which you take time off. For example, if you only take one day off in a five-day workweek, you should be charged one-fifth of a workweek only.

There are many important benefits that the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provides for workers. In fact, the benefits of the FMLA far outweighs the negatives of trying to understand this complex morass of laws.

Many workers may lose interest in figuring out the availability of the FMLA after they realize it is unpaid leave. However, before giving up, you should know these four benefits of taking FMLA leave, as provided by the U.S. Department of Labor:

You can only take FMLA leave for serious medical conditions.

Contrary to popular belief, you cannot simply request FMLA every time you feel sick or want to care for a loved one.

Instead, to take FMLA leave for a medical reason, you will need to show that the medical condition qualifies as a "serious health condition."

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is a confusing body of law. Even lawyers and human resource professionals are confused as to the intricacies of the law. As a result, most laypeople will need some help understanding their rights.

Here is an overview of the FMLA, which grants leaves of absence to eligible employees.

There may come a time when your aging parents or relatives become ill. You may need to take time off from work to care for them. But just because your loved one needs you, are you entitled to take FMLA leave to care for them?

The FMLA does entitle eligible employees to take up to 12 weeks of protected unpaid leave to care for a "parent" with a serious health condition. But what about non-parents like your grandparents, aunts, or other family members who acted in place of your parents?

Congress does recognize the reality of a modern family: that someone other than your biological mom or dad may have raised you. As a result, eligible employees may take FMLA leave to care for someone who stood "in loco parentis" to the employee.

This summer, the 21st Century Minimum Wage Standard took effect in Philadelphia.

Under this ordinance, employers doing business with the city must give paid sick leave to their employees, as reported in Business Management Daily. This ordinance went into effect July 1.

The ordinance breaks down employers into groups, depending on their size. Larger employers must give more hours of paid leave than smaller ones.

Employees at companies employing five to 11 employees are entitled to 32 hours of paid sick leave per calendar year. Those at companies employing 12 or more are entitled to 56 hours of leave.

Have you finally decided to make the plunge into having a family? Now that you've given in to the idea that your life will forever change at home, do you know what it has in store for your work life?

There are state and federal laws that provide you with some time, but you need to know if you qualify for them before asking for the time off. That's where FindLaw's handy mini-guide comes into play. Read on to find out about what the guide provides and how it helps you get some time off for your new baby.

Monise Princilus is the former director of human resources for the Camden City Public Schools, and is a little upset about that "former" part, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer. According to Ms. Princilus, she was placed on leave, and then did not have her contract renewed, because she refused to lie on the superintendent's behalf.

Superintendent Bessie LeFra Young is the head honcho of the Camden district. According to the Inquirer, she's come under fire lately for allegedly missing an entire school year's worth of days over the past year and a half. Young claims the absences were due to a chronic illness.

Jacqueline Heenan worked for Philadelphia-based law firm Fragomen, Del Ray, Bernsen & Lowey LLP for less than a year before she got a troubling medical diagnosis. She needed leave from her employer due to open heart surgery, reports the Pennsylvania Record.

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act and Family Medical Leave Act, temporary disabilities such as Heenan's surgery require the employer to make reasonable accomodations, like an extended leave of absence. If the employee has paid leave, they should be allowed to use that first, followed by as much unpaid leave as is necessary.

You have to credit Scott Bennett with ingenuity. The man wanted time off work so bad that he schemed his mom’s fake death to get paid bereavement leave.

The 45-year-old Bennett submitted an obituary to The Jeffersonian Democrat newspaper regarding the death of his own mother, reports the Associated Press. It wasn’t clear where Bennett worked, but the man hoped that proof of his mom’s death would convince his employer to give him some time of work.