Record FMLA Protected Absences

Your recording of Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) protected absences involves:

Supporting employee absences
Using accrual balances before initiating FMLA protection

Supporting Absences

FMLA legislation protects the employee's job during the absence.

An employee can report the time covered under FMLA as one of the following.

Absence type	What this means	How you support it
Intermittent absence	The employee takes time off sporadically. When an employee takes an intermittent absence, they take blocks of time that are less than the full amount of their total entitlement. Also known as reduced schedule leave.	You can record absences daily or as scheduled. Daily The employee works reduced hours on a regular basis. Scheduled The employee schedules the hours that they take off as an absence. For FMLA compliance, you ensure that employees schedule hours on specific dates for intermittent absences. For example, "every Monday for 2 hours". Or a person may know that they have a doctor's appointment on a specific date. Note: Employees can't schedule hours that aren't associated with specific dates. For example, "20 hours between September 2 and September 30" isn't a valid intermittent absence. In this case, you must ensure that employees schedule the hours to be on specific dates.
Continuous absence	No work is performed during the uninterrupted absence.	You can group related absences, such as absences due to long-term illness. This helps you concurrently track the time to pay benefits and to monitor FMLA qualification status. Use the FMLA absence plan to associate multiple absences, including those of different types. For further info, see FMLA Absence Plans and Absence Types in the Help Center. Note: The initial entitlement calculation doesn't use the estimated end date for qualification absences like long-term illness. The calculation is based on 365 days. The actual end date causes the entitlement to be recalculated.

Absence type

What this means

How you support it

Intermittent absence

The employee takes time off sporadically.

When an employee takes an intermittent absence, they take blocks of time that are less than the full amount of their total entitlement.

Also known as reduced schedule leave.

You can record absences daily or as scheduled.

Daily

The employee works reduced hours on a regular basis.
Scheduled

The employee schedules the hours that they take off as an absence.

For FMLA compliance, you ensure that employees schedule hours on specific dates for intermittent absences. For example, "every Monday for 2 hours". Or a person may know that they have a doctor's appointment on a specific date.

Note: Employees can't schedule hours that aren't associated with specific dates. For example, "20 hours between September 2 and September 30" isn't a valid intermittent absence. In this case, you must ensure that employees schedule the hours to be on specific dates.

Continuous absence

No work is performed during the uninterrupted absence.

You can group related absences, such as absences due to long-term illness. This helps you concurrently track the time to pay benefits and to monitor FMLA qualification status.

Use the FMLA absence plan to associate multiple absences, including those of different types.

For further info, see FMLA Absence Plans and Absence Types in the Help Center.

Note: The initial entitlement calculation doesn't use the estimated end date for qualification absences like long-term illness. The calculation is based on 365 days. The actual end date causes the entitlement to be recalculated.

Using Accrual Balances Before Initiating FMLA Protection

If you require your employees to use some of their vacation or sick leave prior to initiating FMLA leave, use two absence plans. Do not add them to the same absence type.

For example, if you require an ill employee to use part of their vacation before initiating FMLA protection, you must have two absence plans.

One to record the vacation time
One to initiate the FMLA absence

These two absence plans aren't associated with each other. Associate each plan with their own absence type to keep them separate. One tracks FMLA time, and the other tracks and pays the benefits, if applicable. Once the vacation time is used, then manually start the FMLA absence plan. The enforcement of such a policy is a manual process and is your responsibility.