The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)

Overview
Family and medical leave is a valuable benefit that allows time off for employees who need to support their own or a family member’s serious health condition or for employees to take time off after the birth or adoption of a child. The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is a federal law that guarantees job-protected unpaid leave to certain eligible workers to care for themselves or an immediate family member during illness, birth, and/or adoption. Employees must meet the following criteria to be eligible for FMLA:

Work for a public sector agency, public or private school, or private employer
Work for employer for at least 12 months
Complete 1,250 total hours of service for employer during the 12-month period immediately preceding the leave
Work in a facility with a minimum of 50 employees within a 75-mile radius
Employees who meet this requirement may use up to 12 weeks of job-protected unpaid leave within a one-year period. Note that the leave can be used intermittently and is not required to be used consecutively.

assume you are an HR professional at a small facility that houses 250 employees onsite. The company is a small start-up organization in Texas. The chief financial officer (CFO) is working with her team to forecast and budget for the next fiscal year. To forecast the appropriate budget allocations, she has asked you to review the company’s FMLA data to identify trends and risks.

Directions
For this assignment, you will first determine whether the employer qualifies for FMLA. You will then analyze the FMLA data provided in Supporting Materials for trends and risks.

Use the following questions to guide your analysis of trends in the FMLA Report:

What is the data trying to tell you (e.g., consistencies, increases, or decreases in FMLA data outcomes)?
Is this information coming from one or more data sources?
When was the data collected?
What dates are included in your data collection?
What type of information is your stakeholder requesting, and do you have the right data to respond to the request?
Are there any ethical considerations (e.g., is the data protected by federal or state laws)?