Support Staff Policies & Procedures

Support Staff Family Medical Leave Act Policy & Procedure

Last updated 4/14/2017

Applies to:

The university provides Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) protection for all eligible employees.

Eligibility:

Active employees who have: (1) been employed at MSU for at least twelve months and (2) worked at least 1,250 hours during the 12-month period immediately preceding the commencement of the leave.

Qualifying situations:

• For birth of an employee's child, including prenatal doctor visits as well as caring for the newborn child, anytime within the first twelve months of the birth of the baby
• For placement of a child for adoption or foster care with the employee anytime within the first twelve months of the placement of the child
• To care for an employee's spouse, including State recognized same-sex unions, dependent child, or parent with a serious health condition
• Because of a serious health condition that makes the employee unable to perform the essential functions of his/her job
• Because a qualifying exigency arises, and the employee’s spouse, child or parent, who is a covered military member and is on active duty or has been notified of an impending call to active duty status is being deployed for a contingency operation in a foreign country
• To care for a current service member, or one who is on the temporary disability retired list, with a serious injury or illness, incurred in the line of duty on active duty for which he or she is undergoing medical treatment, recuperation, or therapy. The employee must be the spouse, child, parent or next of kin of the service member.

General information:

Requesting leave:

• Employees have the right to apply for FMLA leave for conditions requiring time off intermittently, continuously, or on a reduced schedule.      
• When intermittent or reduced schedule time off is needed for FMLA leave, that is not medically necessary, the schedule must be mutually agreed upon by the department.
• FMLA leave is not provided beyond an assignment end date, layoff date, or the end of a temporary appointment.
• Unless there are extenuating circumstances, FMLA is not retroactive.
• Once the employer is made aware that the leave is being taken for a potential FMLA-qualifying reason, the employer must provide the certification forms to the employee within five business days
• Once the certification documents are received, the employer must notify the employee of the leave designation, approved FMLA or not FMLA, within five business days.
• MSU’s FMLA forms are only available through Human Resources.
• FMLA documentation must be completed by an acceptable health care provider, to certify that a medical condition is FMLA qualifying.
• Submission of medical documentation that has been tampered with or changed is a fraudulent act which will result in disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment, and denial of FMLA.
• The employee, department, and supervisor, will be notified electronically of the employee’s FMLA request and approval.

Using paid time while on FMLA leave:

• FMLA leave is concurrent with workers compensation and other paid/unpaid leaves of absence taken for FMLA reasons.
• The FMLA does not require paid leave for a situation in which the employer would not normally provide paid leave.
• For support staff, accrued paid sick leave hours will be used for qualifying medical FMLA events and counted toward the maximum allowed 12 weeks of FMLA leave, if the requirements for using accrued sick leave are met under the employee's collective bargaining agreement.
• Use of accrued family sick leave credits for the serious health condition of a family member, up to the limits specified in the relevant collective bargaining agreement and sick leave and family medical leave act policy, is required and counted toward the maximum allowed 12 weeks of FMLA leave.
• Bereavement will not be paid in lieu of other types of paid leave.
• Sick leave used for short term illnesses or absences that are not qualifying FMLA events will not be counted as FMLA leave. Please refer to the appropriate Collective Bargaining Agreements or Michigan State University's Policies and Procedures for additional information.

Return to work:

• Human Resources or the department may require an employee to report periodically on his/her status and intent to return to work.
• A certification must be received from the health care provider stating that the employee is able to resume work and perform the essential functions of the employee's job.  
• Return to the payroll may not be delayed pending receipt of a release to return to work, from the health care provider.
• Restoration to employment, may be delayed for up to two business days, until an employee submits a required note from the health care provider, stating that they are released to return to work.
• Human Resources may contact the employee's health care provider for purposes of clarifying and authenticating the release to return to work.
• Under certain circumstances, a fitness for duty evaluation may be required prior to returning to work.
• If an employee may need an accommodation to be able to perform the essential functions and return to employment, they must contact the Resource Center for Persons With Disabilities on campus at rcpd.msu.edu as soon as possible.

For definitions of such terms and phrases as serious health condition, intermittent leave, health care provider, spouse/eligible partner, parent and child, and more detailed information see Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (Final Rule), or contact MSU Human Resources (517-353-4434).

Procedure

Employee:

• An employee must provide his/her department at least 30 days advance notice before FMLA leave is to begin if the need for the leave is foreseeable.  If the employee fails to give timely advance notice with no reasonable excuse, FMLA coverage will be delayed until 30 days after the date of notice.
•  If the leave was not foreseeable, notice must be given as soon as practicable. An employee must follow the department call-in procedure, or provide notice in person, if the need for FMLA arises. Notice of the need for FMLA leave may be given by the employee's family member if the employee is unable to do so personally.
• When planning medical treatment, the employee should consult with the department and make a reasonable effort to schedule the leave so as to minimize disruption of the department's operations, subject to the approval of the health care provider. In the case of a request for intermittent leave or leave on a reduced leave schedule, the employee and department shall attempt to work out a schedule which meets the employee's needs and minimizes disruption of the department's operations, subject to the approval of the health care provider.
• The employee must contact Human Resources to initiate a request for FMLA and to receive the forms that are required to be completed for certification.
• The certification forms are due back within fifteen calendar days of the date that they are distributed.  Failure to return the completed documentation may result in denial of the condition being certified as FMLA.
• As a condition of being returned to work from FMLA leave occasioned by employee's own health condition, certification must be received by Human Resources, from the health care provider, stating that the employee is able to resume work, and to perform the essential functions of the job.
• If the circumstances have changed and the amount of leave originally anticipated is no longer necessary, the employee must give reasonable notice (a minimum of two days) to the employer where early return to work is foreseeable or an extension is necessary.
• Intermittent FMLA must be recertified, at minimum, every six months, and renewed every twelve months. Human Resources may require that recertification be presented less frequently than every six months.

Department:

• Departments are required to post and keep posted on the premises, in conspicuous places, a FMLA Posting Requirements notice and provide information concerning the procedures for filing complaints or violations of the Act.
• If the department or supervisor has reason to believe that an employee, or their family member, may have a qualifying FMLA condition, the employee should be referred to the Human Resource office.
• To report FMLA qualifying absences for an employee in EBS:
• For the employee’s own serious health condition, use all available contractual sick leave credits first, if the employee has complied with the requirements for using sick leave under the relevant collective bargaining agreement.
• For care of a family member, use all available contractual family sick leave credits first,
• If the employee has verified the usage of their vacation, personal, and personal observance leave, use these amounts next, and
• If the employee is on leave for less than ten (10) days, the department will report the attendance in EBS. If the employee is on leave for more than ten (10) days, they will be placed on an FMLA leave of absence by Human Resources.
• If the allotment of FMLA is exhausted, and the employee will not be returning, Human Resources will convert the leave to a medical /sickness leave of absence.
• In case of intermittent or reduced-schedule FMLA leave, a department may require an employee to transfer temporarily to an available alternative position with equivalent pay and benefits or to a part-time job with the same hourly rate of pay and full-time benefits. Transfer to an alternative position may require compliance with any applicable Collective Bargaining Agreement, federal law (such as the Americans with Disabilities Act), and state law, and may include altering an existing job to better accommodate the employee's need for intermittent or reduced leave.
• If intermittent use of FMLA is significantly different from the certified frequency and duration, the department should contact Human Resources to request that the usage be reviewed and recertification considered.
• A department may not use absences that qualify as FMLA leave as a negative factor in employment actions.
• To preserve an employee's privacy and protect the supervisor from charges of violating the privacy provision, supervisors must ensure all relevant conversations are kept confidential, and documentation is forwarded to the Human Resources office so it can be maintained in a confidential file, separate from personnel records.

Human Resources:

• Human Resources will determine if the employee is eligible for FMLA. 
• The employee will be provided FMLA Form #1, Notice of Eligibility and Rights and Responsibilities and Designation Notice, along with the appropriate certification form, for completion.  The employee will be allowed 15 calendar days to complete and submit the documentation for review.
• If the information on the certificate is unclear, incomplete or insufficient, the employee will be notified of the issue, and will be given seven calendar days to cure the deficiency.   If the employee fails to cure the deficiency, the leave may be denied.
• Human Resources may request information from the health care provider if clarification or authentication of the documentation is necessary.  Clarification refers to requests to decipher handwriting or to understand the meaning of a response.  Authentication refers only to requesting verification that the information on the form was authorized by the health care provider who signed it.
• No additional medical information may be requested when clarifying or authenticating is necessary.
• The employee's permission is not needed to clarify or authenticate.
• The employee can choose not to allow the employer to seek clarification, but then the employer may deny the leave if the certification is unclear.
• Human Resources has the right to ask for a second opinion if it has reason to doubt the certification. The department will pay for the employee to get a certification from a second doctor, which will be selected by Human Resources.
• The employee will be provisionally entitled to leave and benefits under the FMLA pending the second and/or third opinion.
• FMLA leave will be denied if the employee refuses to release relevant medical records to the health care provider designated to provide a second or third opinion or does not attend the second or third opinion.
• If necessary to resolve a conflict between the original certification and the second opinion, Human Resources may require the opinion of a third doctor.
• Human Resources and the employee will mutually select the third doctor, and the department will pay for the opinion. This third opinion will be considered final.
• Human Resources will monitor usage of FMLA during the fiscal year, to ensure that it does not exceed the maximum allotment of 12 workweeks during the fiscal year.
• Human Resources will review and validate FMLA documentation that is received at each six-month period for recertification of a chronic condition for intermittent leave.
• When intermittent FMLA is due for renewal, at twelve months, Human Resources will reassess the employee’s eligibility, and determine if the condition is still a serious health condition, as defined by the FMLA.
• Human Resources may request recertification at any reasonable interval, but not more than every 30 days, unless:
• The employee requests an extension of leave,
• Circumstances described by the original certification have changed significantly, or
• Information is received that casts doubt upon the continuing validity of the certification.
• Human Resources may ask for new medical certification, not simply recertification, and may seek a second or third medical opinion if appropriate. Human Resources may also reassess eligibility, such as whether the employee meets the 1,250 hour requirement.

Summary of Benefits:

• The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) allows an employee up to 12 weeks of leave, in a fiscal year (July 1 – June 30) provided they have worked at least 1250 hours in the past 12 months.
• During FMLA leave, MSU will maintain an individual's health and dental benefits, if enrolled, at the same level and under the same conditions as coverage would have been provided if the employee had been continuously employed during the entire leave period.
• Employees and departments may view FMLA balances on the Quota Balance Report through the EBS Portal.
• An employee generally has a right to return to the same position or an equivalent position with equivalent pay, benefits, and working conditions at the conclusion of the leave.
• Upon return from FMLA leave, an employee is entitled to the same position held when the leave commenced, or to an equivalent position with equivalent benefits, pay and other terms and conditions of employment unless a department is able to show that an employee would not otherwise have been employed. If an employee was hired for a specific term or only to perform work on a distinct project, the department has no obligation to restore the employee if the employment term or project is over and the department would not otherwise have continued to employ the employee.
• A department may not use absences that qualify as FMLA leave as a negative factor in employment actions.
• If the employee does not return to work for 30 days following an unpaid FMLA leave, they may be required to reimburse MSU for the health insurance premiums made on their behalf during the FMLA leave.

Refer questions to: MSU Human Resources (telephone 517-353-4434)

Revision History:

12/15/2014 - Minor changes to language around request for recertification and confidentiality.

3/13/2015 - Included same sex relationships under covered situations and minor changes under Procedures for Department, and contact dept. name.

4/14/2017 – Removed many processes from Department section. Moved those processes to the new Human Resources, Requesting Leave, Using Paid Time, Return To Work, and Summary of Benefits sections, and made other minor changes regarding contacts and form locations

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