Description
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) Employee Rights Poster
Help satisfy federal workplace posting requirements with the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) Employee Rights Poster. This 11 x 17-inch federal notice explains important employee rights and employer responsibilities under the Family and Medical Leave Act.
Every employer covered by the FMLA must display and keep displayed the required general notice in a conspicuous location where employees and applicants for employment can readily see it. Covered employers must display the notice even at locations where no employees are currently eligible for FMLA leave.
What Is the Family and Medical Leave Act?
The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is a federal law that provides eligible employees of covered employers with job-protected leave for qualifying family and medical reasons.
Eligible employees may take FMLA leave for qualifying reasons while maintaining group health benefits under the same terms and conditions that would apply if the employee had continued working.
Which Employers Are Covered by the FMLA?
Covered employers under the FMLA generally include:
- Private-sector employers with 50 or more employees in 20 or more workweeks in the current or previous calendar year
- Public agencies, including federal, state, and local government employers, regardless of the number of employees
- Public and private elementary and secondary schools and local educational agencies, regardless of the number of employees
Who Is Eligible for FMLA Leave?
An employee generally must meet several requirements to be eligible for FMLA leave. The employee must:
- Work for an employer covered by the FMLA
- Have worked for the employer for at least 12 months
- Have at least 1,250 hours of service with the employer during the 12 months immediately before the leave begins
- Work at a location where the employer has at least 50 employees within 75 miles
Special eligibility rules apply to certain airline flight crew employees, and other circumstances can affect how an employee's service is calculated.
How Much FMLA Leave Can an Eligible Employee Take?
Eligible employees may generally take up to 12 workweeks of FMLA leave during a 12-month period for qualifying family and medical reasons.
Eligible employees may also take up to 26 workweeks of military caregiver leave during a single 12-month period to care for a covered servicemember with a serious injury or illness when the applicable FMLA requirements are met.
What Qualifying Reasons Are Covered by the FMLA?
Eligible employees may be entitled to FMLA leave for qualifying reasons including:
- The birth of a child and bonding with the newborn child
- Placement of a child for adoption or foster care and bonding with the newly placed child
- Caring for a spouse, child, or parent with a serious health condition
- An employee's own serious health condition that makes the employee unable to perform the essential functions of the employee's job
- Certain qualifying exigencies related to a spouse, child, or parent's covered military service
- Caring for a covered servicemember with a serious injury or illness when military caregiver leave requirements are met
Is FMLA Leave Paid?
FMLA leave is generally unpaid job-protected leave. However, an employee may use employer-provided paid leave at the same time as FMLA leave when applicable requirements are satisfied.
Employers and employees should follow applicable FMLA requirements and the employer's established paid leave policies when paid leave and FMLA leave run concurrently.
Does Health Insurance Continue During FMLA Leave?
During FMLA leave, a covered employer must generally maintain an eligible employee's group health plan coverage under the same conditions that would have applied if the employee had continued working.
The employee remains responsible for paying any employee portion of applicable health insurance premiums according to the employer's procedures.
Does an Employee Get the Same Job Back After FMLA Leave?
When an eligible employee returns from FMLA leave, the employee generally must be restored to the same job or to a virtually identical position with equivalent pay, benefits, and other terms and conditions of employment.
FMLA leave generally cannot be counted against an employee under a no-fault attendance policy or used as a negative factor in employment decisions.
Can FMLA Leave Be Taken Intermittently?
Eligible employees may take FMLA leave intermittently or on a reduced leave schedule when medically necessary for a qualifying serious health condition or military caregiver leave.
Intermittent or reduced-schedule leave may also be available for qualifying exigencies related to military service. Leave for bonding with a newborn or newly placed child may be taken intermittently when the employer agrees.
Employee Notice and Certification Requirements
Employees requesting FMLA leave must provide their employer with enough information for the employer to determine whether the leave may qualify for FMLA protection.
When the need for leave is foreseeable, employees generally must provide advance notice as required by the FMLA. Employers may also require appropriate medical certification or other documentation when permitted by federal law.
Employer FMLA Notice Responsibilities
Covered employers have several FMLA employee-notification responsibilities in addition to displaying the general workplace poster.
Depending on the circumstances, employers may be required to provide:
- A general FMLA notice
- An eligibility notice
- A notice of employee rights and responsibilities
- A designation notice explaining whether leave is designated as FMLA-protected
The workplace FMLA poster does not replace these individualized employee notices when they are required.
Protection Against FMLA Interference and Retaliation
Employers may not interfere with, restrain, or deny an employee's exercise or attempted exercise of rights provided by the FMLA.
Employers also may not discharge or discriminate against an employee because the employee exercises FMLA rights, files a complaint, participates in an FMLA proceeding, or provides information concerning potential FMLA violations.
How Can an Employee File an FMLA Complaint?
Employees who believe their FMLA rights have been violated may contact the U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division for information or assistance and may file a complaint with the Department.
Employees may also have the right to bring a private legal action under the FMLA when applicable requirements are satisfied.
Where Must the FMLA Poster Be Displayed?
Every covered employer must display and keep displayed the FMLA general notice in a conspicuous location where employees and applicants for employment can readily see and read it.
Appropriate locations may include:
- Employee bulletin boards
- Employee entrances
- Human Resources areas
- Applicant and interview areas
- Break rooms
- Time-clock areas
- Other locations where required employee notices are customarily displayed
Must the FMLA Poster Be Displayed if No Employees Are Eligible?
Yes. If an employer is covered by the FMLA, the required general notice must be displayed even at a location where no employees currently meet the eligibility requirements for taking FMLA leave.
Employer coverage and individual employee eligibility are separate concepts under the FMLA.
Are Other Languages Required?
If a significant portion of an employer's workforce is not literate in English, the employer must provide the FMLA general notice in a language in which those employees are literate.
The U.S. Department of Labor makes the FMLA poster available in Spanish and other languages to help covered employers communicate employee rights.
Is the FMLA Poster Federally Required?
Yes, for employers covered by the Family and Medical Leave Act. Every covered employer must display and keep displayed the required FMLA general notice explaining the major provisions of the law and how employees can file a complaint.
The notice must be displayed where employees and applicants for employment can readily see it, even when no employees at the location are currently eligible for FMLA leave.
FMLA Employee Rights Poster Specifications
- 11"W x 17"H
- Portrait orientation
- Printed in full color
- Laminated with high-quality laminate
- Available in English and Spanish
- Federal employee rights notice
Federal Workplace Posting and Compliance Resources
Labor Law Compliance Center provides employers with federal and state labor law posters, employee rights notices, federal contractor postings, specialty posters, and compliance resources throughout the United States. Browse our Federal Labor Law Posters for additional individual federal workplace notices and compliance products.
