Family and Medical Leave Act policy update

• Employees, to be eligible for the FMLA, must have been employed for at least 12 cumulative months during the last seven years and must have worked for at least 1,250 hours during the 12-month period prior to the leave. The 12 months during which employees must have been employed do not have to be consecutive.

• All employees who currently have an active, approved certification through CareWorksUSA may continue to use their FMLA benefit. For any new claims in 2014 however, employees must meet the updated eligibility requirement which matches the requirements of the federal FMLA regulation.

• All employees with an active FMLA certification must follow their department’s normal call-out procedure. In addition, employees must call CareWorksUSA within 24 hours of an absence to report any absence and ensure accurate accounting of FMLA time used. Therefore, employees calling-out FMLA must make two phone calls.

  Failure to either call out using a department’s normal procedure and/or failing to call CareWorksUSA to report an absence can result in the employee receiving occurrences and corrective action in accordance with the Attendance and Tardiness policy and the Corrective Action policy.

• Managers, supervisors, and time-keepers no longer have to use the FMLA drop-down in Kronos. PTO and Sick Leave must continue to be recorded in Kronos and used, when available, prior to using unpaid leave. Managers may not allow employees to take FML and “make-up” the hours later.

Please see the updated FMLA policy (on UNC Health Care’s Intranet) for additional information. For further questions regarding employee claims processing and administration, CareWorksUSA can be reached 24/7, toll free at 1-888-436-9530.