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HR Compliance Bulletin header image The U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division (WHD) has updated its “COVID-19 and the Family and Medical Leave Act Questions and Answers” web page, originally published in 2020.

As before, the Q&As explain that—under the FMLA—covered employers must provide eligible employees with job-protected, unpaid leave for specified family and medical reasons. Additionally, employees on FMLA leave are entitled to the continuation of group health insurance coverage under the same terms that were in effect before they took leave.

Legal Update Header An employee working a “one week on, one week off” schedule who takes 12 workweeks of federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) leave may be required to return to work 12 weeks later, a federal appeals court has held.

In Scalia v. State of Alaska, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals found that an employer may count both “on” and “off” weeks against the FMLA leave entitlement of an employee on a rotating schedule. Ninth Circuit decisions apply in Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. The opinion was issued Jan. 15, 2021.

Legal Update Header

On Dec. 29, 2020, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) published Field Assistance Bulletin 2020-8 to provide enforcement guidance regarding the use of telemedicine when establishing a serious health condition under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).

FMLA Eligibility

FMLA job protections are available to eligible employees who need to take time off work due to their own serious health condition or the serious health condition of a spouse, child or parent.

Legal Update HeaderThe U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has published an interim final rule to implement the Federal Employee Paid Leave Act (FEPLA), which provides 12 weeks of paid parental leave to certain federal employees covered by the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).

The rule takes effect Oct. 1, 2020, the same date leave benefits become available under FEPLA.

HR Insights Blog HeaderIn response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, states have passed new laws and issued new regulations and guidance about employee leave taken for COVID-19 reasons.

These provisions are in addition to the federal Emergency Paid Sick Leave and Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion requirements passed on March 18 as part of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA).