Eligible employees may receive up to 12 workweeks of unpaid leave during any "rolling" 12-month period, measured backward from the date that any FMLA leave is used (see example below).
Under the ‘‘rolling’’ 12-month period, each time an employee takes FMLA leave, the remaining leave entitlement would be the balance of the 12 weeks which has not been used during the immediately preceding 12 months.
Example for Determining Available Time:
If an employee used four weeks beginning February 1, 2008, four weeks beginning June 1, 2008, and four weeks beginning December 1, 2008, the employee would not be entitled to any additional leave until February 1, 2009.
However, beginning on February 1, 2009, the employee would again be eligible to take FMLA leave, recouping the right to take the leave in the same manner and amounts in which it was used in the previous year.
Thus, the employee would recoup (and be entitled to use) one additional day of FMLA leave each day for four weeks, commencing February 1, 2009.
The employee would also begin to recoup additional days beginning on June 1, 2009, and additional days beginning on December 1, 2009.
In the example above, if the employee needs six weeks of leave for a serious health condition commencing February 1, 2009, only the first four weeks of the leave would be FMLA-protected.
Employees taking FMLA leave may fall in and out of FMLA protection based on their FMLA usage in the prior 12 months.
When leave is to care for a service member or veteran with a serious injury or illness, an eligible employee may take up to 26 workweeks of leave during a single 12-month period to care for that service member or veteran.
Leave to care for an injured or ill service member or veteran, when combined with other FMLA qualifying leave, may not exceed 26 weeks in the single 12-month period during which the 26 weeks of military caregiver leave is available.
A single 12-month period for purposes of military caregiver leave begins on the first day that an employee takes military caregiver leave and ends twelve months after that date, regardless of the rolling 12-month period that Tulane University uses for determining available leave for other FMLA-qualifying reasons.
