The form states that, 'Each time an employee takes FMLA leave, the remaining leave is the balance of the 12 weeks not used during the 12 months immediately before the FMLA leave is to start.'

Matthew Morris, vice president of FMLASource at ComPsych in Chicago, criticized the new form's description of the popular rolling-backward method for calculating the 12-month period. Whether FMLA leave will run concurrently with workers' compensation, any applicable disability insurance coverage or leave required by state law.The option for an employer to indicate the effect that FMLA leave has on employee benefits other than health insurance.The DOL notes that one of the requirements for an employee to be eligible to take leave under the FMLA is having worked 1,250 hours during the 12 months prior to the start of leave. Requiring an employer to indicate how far short of the 1,250 hours of service requirement an employee is if a worker does not meet that eligibility criterion.The DOL also aligned the notice more closely with the leave regulations, including: The new model notice is reorganized into seven topics related to an employee's FMLA leave and return to work, each with its own heading, lending greater clarity to the information provided on each topic, he said. This required an employee to refer to both sections to gather all the information on the same topic, such as substitution of paid leave, Macdonald noted. The old version of the notice had been organized by a list of employee responsibilities followed by a list of employee rights. The DOL made extensive changes to the notice of eligibility and rights and responsibilities, Macdonald said. Notice of Eligibility and Rights and Responsibilities 'Notably, the forms included reminders to not return completed forms to the DOL, so there must have been some confusion and misdirection of forms to date,' said Abigail O'Connell, senior counsel with Sun Life Financial in Wellesley Hills, Mass. 'Some of the forms were entirely reorganized and revamped,' said Scott Macdonald, J.D., SHRM-SCP, a senior HR management consultant with The Human Resource Consortium LLC in New Haven, Conn. But additional changes to the forms might be in order, legal experts say.Īmong the forms changed were the WH-381, the notice of eligibility and rights and responsibilities WH-382, designation notice WH-380-E, medical certification of an employee's serious health condition and WH-380-F, medical certification of a family member's serious health condition.

Matrix absence management forms