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USPS Leave Accounting · Contacts


Maintenance

Family Medical and Parental Leave

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) generally ensures that employees are able to take extended leaves of absence from work to handle family issues or illness without fear of being terminated from their jobs or being forced into a lower job upon their return.

All information is entered on the HO8U1 (Employee FMLA/Parental Leave Authorization) and HM9U1 (Employee Leave Request) screens, except the FMLA system flag, which is selected on the HNKLA (Leave Accounting Report Requests and Flags) screen.

HO8U1 Screen

The HO8U1 screen has two main functions:

  • It verifies the eligibility of an employee to receive family medical or parental leave
  • It tracks the number of hours of parental and family medical leave that an employee has taken

For an employee to take family medical or parental leave, you must first create a record on the HO8U1 screen. Create a separate record for each qualifying event.

When you create a record to track family medical leave, the system checks to see if the employee has 12 months of service. In the case of an employee who has no prior state service and has not taken leave without pay (LWOP), the system checks the hire date. Otherwise, it checks the effective service begin date. If the employee does not have 12 months of service, the system will not create a record.

If the employee meets this requirement of 12 months of service, the system checks to see if the employee has worked 1,250 hours within the last 12 months. As the system does not track hours worked at previous agencies, it is possible the employee worked more hours than the system shows for the current agency. If the employee does not meet the system's 1,250 hours requirement, a warning error displays, allowing you to investigate the matter. After passing these edits, the system creates a record.

Parental Leave

When you create a record to track parental leave, no edits are available to determine eligibility. However, if the system finds the employee has 12 months of service and 1,250 work hours, it displays a warning message stating it is better for the employee to take family medical leave. The system is set up this way because any event causing an employee to take parental leave can cause an employee to take family medical leave, and under family medical leave the state continues to pay its portion of the employee's benefits.

Next: Example 10