Family
Medial Leave Information
To be eligible, an employee must have worked for the employer for at least 1,000
hours in the last 52 weeks. (1250 hours for Federal Law.)
An employee is required to give notice to the employer that is reasonable.
(Federal leave requires 30 days notice if foreseeable.)
You must contact the Personnel department as soon as possible,
before the leave when possible, and obtain a set of forms that must be completed
by the employee and the health care provider and returned within 15 days. At
Strattec the forms are available in Human Resources, at Briggs they are
available in Personnel.
Reasons for leave:
The State and Federal Family and Medical
Leave Act (FMLA) laws require covered employers to provide job protected, unpaid
leave for the birth or adoption of a child, or for the serious illness of the
employee, his or her spouse, parent or child. The two laws differ in some areas,
but the Federal Law does not supersede the provisions of the State Law.
Employees are entitled to added rights under the Federal Law, but lose no rights
from the State Law. To use benefits that employees are entitled to under only
one law, the employee may be required to meet requirements of that law in excess
of the requirements of the other. Time off under FMLA does not count against
your attendance record.
1.
The employee's own serious medical condition.
2.
The serious medical condition of the employee's spouse, child or
parent. (State Law includes spouse's parents.)
3.
The birth or adoption of a child.
Definition of a serious health condition:
The health condition must require inpatient treatment in a hospital, hospice or
residential facility or continuing treatment by a health care provider. To meet
the requirement of continuing treatment, the health condition must require that
the employee be treated more than one time by a health care professional. If the
leave is for the employee, it also is necessary that the employee be unable to
perform his or her job because of the serious health condition.
Intermittent leave:
The employee may take the leave in an intermittent manner for any of the covered
reasons under State Law. Under Federal Law the employee may take intermittent
leave, however if the leave is for the birth or adoption of a child, the
employer must agree to the intermittent leave.
(Neither Briggs nor Strattec has not agreed to this. That means that
leave for birth or adoption may be intermittent under the State Law rights.
State Law requires that leave begin within 14 weeks of the birth or adoption.
Federal Law only requires that the leave be concluded with 12 months of the
birth or adoption. This means that any leave that begins more than 14 weeks
after the birth or adoption, can only be intermittent with the employer's
approval.)
Substitution:
the employee may elect to substitute accrued paid or unpaid leave for portions
of the family or medical leave. At Strattec, employees may substitute unused
vacation for leaves. The employer may also count other qualified leaves against
the employee's family medical entitlement under Federal Law. (both Strattec and
Briggs will normally use this provision to reduce your entitlement if you are
off on sick leave or Workers Compensation.)
Complaints:
Under State Law, complaints must be filed within 30 days of the violation, or
when the employee should have known that the violation took place. Action may be
brought under the Federal Law through civil action in State or Federal Courts
within 2 years. That period is extended to three years if the violation is
willful. The complaint process for the State Law is much simpler and more
expedient. Complaint forms may be obtained by calling the State Equal Rights
Division at 227-4384.
Time off for caretaking or the birth or adoption of a child will not
count as time worked for pension purposes. This is only an issue in years in
which you have less than 1,000 qualified hours, normally just the year of
retirement.
Maximum
length of leave: Under Federal Law, an employee is entitled to up to 12
weeks in any 12 month period for one or more of the above reasons.
Under State Law, an employee is entitled to up to 6 weeks for the birth or
adoption of a child, 2 weeks for the employees own serious medical condition or
up to 2 weeks to care for a seriously ill spouse, child or parent.
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