Absence Plans for FMLA Benefits

Absence plans determine how entitlements are provided to an employee, including eligibility and rates. Configurable matrixes and formulas determine the rates of accrual and entitlement.

You configure Federal Medical Leave Act (FMLA) absences using the qualification plan type of absence plan.

Use qualification plans to track actual job protection under FMLA. No accrual of time is associated with a qualification plan. With these plans, the employee's entitlement to time off isn't earned on a period basis. Entitlement is granted to them.

Note: You commonly use non-accrued plans for entitlements other than vacation, such as sickness, maternity, family leave, jury duty, and military service.

You define absence plans for the following.

• Federal FMLA

• Any state where you do business and that offers more generous FMLA provisions

Plan configuration consists of the following areas.

• Basic attributes

• Qualification plan terms

• Plan participation and entitlements

For further info, see the following sections.

Basic Attributes

Use the Absence Plans task to define the FMLA plan.

When creating your plan, enter your US legislative data group (LDG) and the Qualification plan type.

Set the following in the General Attributes section of the Plan Attributes tab.

Field name	What you enter
Plan Name	Enter a name for your plan such as FMLA Qualification.
Legislative Data Group	Select your US LDG.
Status	Select Active.
Enable concurrent entitlement	Check the check box.
Plan UOM	Select Weeks.
Conversion Formula	Required to convert work hours or days missed. Select the formula that you defined for this plan.

Qualification Plan Terms

A qualification plan term is an assessment period during which the total absent time recorded in that period must be evaluated. The absence time is considered to see if the employee qualifies or is entitled to benefits.

You must specify the type of annual period used for the evaluation of protected leave by FMLA.

You can select from the following periods in the Plan Attributes tab.

Period type	What this is
Absence duration	Length of the absence. The absence duration determines the qualification plan term. For example, if a worker schedules a maternity absence from January 1, 2015 to April 15, 2015, then that's the duration of the qualification plan term.
Calendar year	365 days starting on any designated day for the entire plan.
Rolling backward period	Look back one year from the end of the absence to determine how much job protection was used for each absence reported by an employee.
Rolling forward period	Establish a period from the start date of an absence and evaluate all subsequent absences for a year from that first start date.

Plan Participation and Entitlements

After setting up the basic attributes and qualification plan terms, you must define plan participation, by doing the following.

1. In Participation, choose the attributes relevant to your company for enrollment and termination rules for the protected leave.

2. In Eligibility, attach the eligibility profile to the plan.

3. Set the duration for protected leave entitlement in Entitlements by adding Qualification Details.

   • If the leave is to care for a member of the family who's active military, the duration is 26 weeks.

   • For all other types of protected leave, the duration is 12 weeks.

4. In Entitlement Attributes, create a matrix using 10 in sequence, 12 in duration, and 0 in payment percentage.

5. Save your work.