Family Medical Leave Procedure

The purpose of this procedure is to provide guidelines for complying with and administering the Family Medical Leave Act of 1993. The Office of Human Resources will serve as the focal point for all FMLA issues.

FMLA is a federal law that requires the university to provide up to 12 weeks of job protected leave to eligible employees for certain family and medical reasons.

To be eligible for family medical leave, an employee must have been employed for at least 12 months at University of Central Missouri and must have worked at least 1,250 hours during the 12 month period prior to the leave start date.

Conditions that qualify for FMLA are:

1. Birth of a son or daughter of the employee and in order to care for such son or daughter.
2. Placement of a son or daughter with the employee for adoption or foster care.
3. To care for a spouse, son, daughter, or parent of the employee that has a serious health condition.
4. A serious health condition that makes the employee unable to perform the functions of the position.

The term serious health condition means any illness, injury, impairment, or physical or mental condition that involves:

1. Inpatient care in a hospital, hospice, or residential medical care facility.
2. Continuing treatment by a health care provider.

Serious health conditions are certified by a health care provider via a Certification of Health Care Provider form or equivalent documentation.

FMLA leave is unpaid leave, however University of Central Missouri will substitute accrued vacation leave for items 1, 2, 3, and 4 and/or accrued sick leave for items 3 and 4 before placing the employee in unpaid status. The employee may elect to use accrued sick leave to avoid going into unpaid status for items 1 and 2.

Requests for family medical leave should be made in writing to the appropriate Human Resource Generalist at least 30 days in advance of foreseeable events and as soon as possible for unforeseeable events. Medical leave requests must include a health care provider statement which includes the anticipated leave dates. Changes in the leave dates or medical status must be provided in writing to Human Resources as they become known. Certain situations will require the employee to submit a health care provider statement verifying his or her fitness to return to work.

Employees eligible for family medical leave may request a maximum of 12 weeks of leave within any 12 month period. Central Missouri uses a rolling 12 month period measured backward from the date an employee uses any FMLA leave. This means each time an employee takes FMLA leave the remaining leave entitlement would be any balance of the 12 weeks which has not been used during the immediately preceding 12 months. This ensures no one would exceed 12 weeks of FMLA leave in any 12 month period.

Couples who both work for Central Missouri are restricted to a combined total of 12 weeks family medical leave within any 12 month period for situations of childbirth, adoption, placement of a foster child, or care for a parent with a serious health condition. The use of intermittent leave is not permitted for situations of childbirth, adoption, and placement of a foster child.

To prepare for the employee's return to work from family medical leave, the employee should provide a minimum of two weeks written notice of the intent to return to work to both Human Resources and the supervisor. The employee will be reinstated to the same position or to an equivalent position for which the employee is qualified. However, certain key positions (including those salaried positions which are among the highest 10% of employees at UCM) may not have the same re-employment guarantee. Such employees must request additional information from Human Resources.

If an employee fails to report to work at the end of the family medical leave, he or she will lose their job protection status and may be terminated. If applicable, Central Missouri may recover the cost of any payments from the employee that were made by UCM to maintain any employee's benefits.

The university, on behalf of the employee, makes insurance payments for 12 weeks. The employee must reimburse the university each month for any dependent health insurance premiums.

All employees, including exempt staff, are required to report FMLA time off in either quarterly increments (non-exempt employees) or hourly increments (exempt employees).