Family & Medical Leave

• The Family Medical Leave ACT (FMLA) entitles employees to unpaid, job protected leave for specified family and medical reasons. Employees may take up to 12 weeks in a rolling 12-month period for a qualified event. 
  Employee are eligible for FMLA if they met the following requirements:
• Employed by SGMC for a minimum 12 months, and worked at least 1,250 hours during the 12 months immediately prior the start date of leave. 
  The leave request must be for one of the reasons listed below:
• Birth of a child and/or to care for the newborn child with one year of birth
• Placement of a child with the employee for adoption or foster care or related necessary activities within one year of placement
• A serious health condition which makes the employee unable to perform their job for more than three (3) consecutive days
• Need to care for a child, spouse or parent who has a serious health condition
• Any qualifying exigency arising out of the fact that the employee’s spouse, child or parent is a military member on covered active duty or call to covered active duty status

Intermittent FMLA leave requests require the same eligibility and qualifying reasons as the Continuous FMLA requests. Intermittent FMLA should be requested by the employee when they will need to be out a recurrent amount of time, but continue to work their normal schedule. 
Example: An employee can request Intermittent FMLA to be out of work for a half day each week to take their child with a serious health condition to their weekly doctor’s appointment.

Qualifying Exigency Leave: 
Eligible employees with a spouse, son, daughter or parent, who is a member of the Armed Forces (including the National Guard and Reserves), on covered active duty or call to covered active duty may use their 12 week entitlement to address certain qualifying exigencies. Qualifying exigencies may include attending certain military events, arranging for alternate childcare, addressing certain financial and legal arrangements, attending certain counseling sessions and attending post-deployment activities(within 90 days of end of covered active duty).

Military Caregiver Leave: 
Eligible employees with a spouse, son, daughter, parent or next of kin of a covered service member with a serious injury or illness may take up to 26 weeks of leave during a single 12-month period to provide care for the service member. A serious illness or injury is an injury or illness that occurred in the line of duty while on active duty.

• Leave of Absence (LOA) is for employees who either do not qualify for FMLA or who have exhausted their leave time under FMLA. A Leave of Absence can be granted, but does not guarantee job protection like FMLA. 
  Employees are eligible for a Leave of Absence if they met the following requirements:
• Employed with SGMC for a minimum of 6 months. LOA requests for employee who are between 90 days and 6 months of employment will be considered on an individual basis with input from their department manager. 
  The leave request must be for one the reasons listed below:
• Birth of a child and/or to care for the newborn child with one year of birth
• Placement of a child with the employee for adoption or foster care or related necessary activities within one year of placement
• A serious health condition which makes the employee unable to perform their job for more than three (3) consecutive days
• Related Educational purposes
• Military Training
• Valid personal reasons

• Full-time and part-time employees may be granted compassionate leave of up to two (2) days with pay in the event of a death in their immediate family, provided the death or funeral occurs on a normally scheduled workday.
• The immediate family is defined as the employee’s:
• Spouse
• Parent
• Grandparents
• Step-parents
• Children
• Step-children
• Siblings
• Grandchildren
• Mother/Father-in-law
• Brother/Sister-in-law
• Son/Daughter-in-law
• Grandparent-in-law
• If it is determined that someone is very dear to the employee and has served as a mother, father, son or daughter but not blood related, these persons may also be considered as “immediate family” upon request and approval by the Director of Human Resources.

• An employee who wishes to take time off due to the death of an Immediate Family Member should notify his or her supervisor immediately. Compassionate Leave will normally be granted unless there are unusual business needs or staffing requirements. An employee may, with his or her supervisor’s approval, use any available vacation for additional time off as necessary. 
  Paid Compassionate Leave will be granted according to the following schedule:
• Employees are allowed up to Three (3) consecutive days off from regularly scheduled duty with regular pay in the event of the death of the employee’s spouse, co-parent, child, father, father-in-law, mother, mother-in-law, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, brother, sister, stepfather, stepmother, stepbrother, stepsister, stepson, or stepdaughter.
• Employees are allowed Two (2) consecutive days off from regular scheduled duty with regular pay in the event of death of the employee’s brother-in-law, sister-in-law, grandparent, grandchild, spouse’s grandparent, niece or nephew.
• Employees are allowed one (1) day off from regular scheduled duty with regular pay in the event of the employee’s aunt, uncle, or first cousin.
• If it is necessary for the employee to be absent more than the allotted days for travel or related business affairs, accrued Paid Time Off (PTO) or leave without pay may be taken provided that prior approval is obtained from the Department Director. Time off should be contiguous with the date of death or funeral.

Please see Policy SPP 7.018 for any other details

 Do I get paid while I am out on leave?

FMLA, Intermittent FMLA and Leave of Absence are considered unpaid leaves. However, you are required to use any Paid Time Off (PTO) that you have available each pay period until either your exhaust your PTO or return to work. You must use your PTO up to your normally assigned schedule. For example, if you normally work 40 hours per week, you must use 40 hours from your available PTO balance for that week.

If you are on leave for an extended period of time, you do have the option to file a disability claim if you are enrolled in Short Term Disability or Long Term Disability. For more information on both, please visit the Short Term Disability link and the Long Term Disability link in the Quick Links section of this page.

 Can I keep my benefits and insurance while I am out on leave?

You are eligible to keep your payroll deducted benefits for up to 12 weeks if your premiums are paid. If you do not have any PTO available and are not receiving a bi-weekly check, you will receive an invoice for your premiums. These premiums invoiced include Health, Flexible Spending Account, Dental, Long Term Disability and any Supplemental Life Insurance (including Child Life and Spouse Life).

After 12 weeks, your coverage will cancel and you will be offered COBRA for Health, Flexible Spending and Dental insurance.