HR Law 101: Since 1993, the Family and Medical Leave Act has provided eligible employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per year for the birth, adoption or foster care of a child; caring for a child, spouse or parent with a serious health condition; or convalescence after an employee’s own serious health condition ...

HR Law 101: Employees who want to take FMLA leave must give their employer 30-day advance notice when the need for leave is foreseeable. Employers should respond in writing within two business days to their leave requests ...

HR Law 101: The FMLA allows employers to negotiate with employees about the time when they are going to take time off when the leave is foreseeable. The law says that employees should schedule their leave “so as not to unduly disrupt the employer’s operations” ...

HR Law 101: Generally, the FMLA entitles employees to take intermittent leave for medical treatment or other medical reasons, whether it's for the employee or a family member. But there's the potential for abuse when employees take intermittent leave ... 

HR Law 101: FMLA leave is unpaid time unless the employer voluntarily decides to continue paying the worker during the time off. You may insist that employees first use up all of their paid leave and count that toward their total FMLA time ...

HR Law 101: When employees are on FMLA leave, employers must continue to provide health benefits for them. The same services your group plan provides on-the-job employees must be made available to those on FMLA leave. If you change coverage or adopt another plan that offers new services while employees are on leave, you must make the new benefits available to them as well ...

HR Law 101: When an eligible employee returns from FMLA leave, the employer must restore him or her to the same position or an equivalent one with equivalent benefits, pay and other terms and conditions of employment. The new position must involve the same or substantially similar duties, responsibilities and authority ...

HR Law 101: The FMLA allows employers to refuse to reinstate workers returning from FMLA leave under limited circumstances. For example, if you have experienced a reduction in force due to the economy or a companywide reorganization, you may be able to eliminate a returning worker's job ...

HR Law 101: The FMLA's recordkeeping requirements are less onerous than those of some other federal laws. But you must handle FMLA medical records with the same level of confidentiality as required under the ADA ...

HR Law 101: One of the toughest problems for employers is figuring out which law applies to a particular condition: the FMLA, workers' comp or the ADA. The relationship between the FMLA and other federal and state statutes is clear: The law that provides the greatest benefits to the employee applies ...