Federal family and medical leave law entitles eligible employees of covered employers to unpaid, job-protected leave for defined reasons, with group health coverage maintained.
Coverage and eligibility. The employer must meet an employee-count threshold; the employee must have worked for at least twelve months, met an hours threshold in the preceding year, and work at a site with the required number of employees within a radius. All four must be checked, not assumed.
Qualifying reasons. The employee’s own serious health condition; care for a spouse, child or parent with one; birth, adoption or foster placement; and certain military family circumstances.
Notice runs both ways. Employees must give notice as practicable; employers must provide eligibility, rights and designation notices within short deadlines. Failure to designate leave, or to give notice, can extend entitlement and create liability.
Intermittent leave for chronic conditions is the hardest to administer. Certification, recertification and, where permitted, second opinions are the lawful tools; discouraging use is not.
Reinstatement is to the same or an equivalent position — equivalent in pay, benefits and conditions, not merely in title.
State laws frequently exceed the federal floor, including paid family leave programmes. Multi-state employers cannot administer to one standard.