Employee Manual 2023 - Flipbook - Page 45
member (“Military Caregiver Leave”). 2 Such leave may not be taken to care for former members of
the Armed Forces, Reserves or National Guard, or members on the permanent disability retired list.
“Care” includes both physical and psychological support. A “covered service member” means a
member of the Armed Forces (including the National Guard or Reserves), who is undergoing
medical treatment, recuperation, or therapy, is otherwise in outpatient status (i.e., assigned to a
military medical treatment facility as an outpatient or a unit established for providing medical care
to members of the Armed Forces on an outpatient basis), or is on the temporary disability retired
list, for a serious injury or illness.
Military Caregiver Leave shall only be available on a per injury basis during a single 12-month
period measured forward from the day the leave begins. Additional leave may be granted during a
subsequent 12-month period for a different injury to the same covered service member or for an
injury to a different covered service member.
Notice of Need for FMLA Leave: An employee must provide the City with at least a 30-day advance
notice of the need to take a FMLA leave where the need is foreseeable. If the employee fails to give
30 days’ notice, the City may deny the employee FMLA leave until at least 30 days after the
employee made the leave request. Where the need for a leave is not foreseeable, the employee
must provide notice as soon as practical, which will mean generally at least a verbal notification
within two business days of when the need for leave becomes known to the employee. Generally,
employees are required to provide initial notice of the need for leave in the customary manner as
required by the City’s procedures for requesting a leave of absence. When leave is taken because
of an active duty qualifying exigency, the employee shall provide as much notice as is reasonable
and practical. For any leave of absence, notice of the need for leave, reasons, and anticipated
duration may be given by telephone, fax or other electronic means, and may be given by the
employee or an adult family member.
Leave Request: When any time-off is requested, the City may inquire about the circumstances for
the purpose of determining whether the requested time-off appears to qualify as FMLA leave. The
City may provide a job description for the healthcare provider to review during the certification
process. Any request determined by the City to qualify as FMLA leave will be credited against the
employee’s FMLA leave for the 12-month rolling period. The employee will be told whether the
time-off qualifies as FMLA leave before the start of the leave, or as soon thereafter as is practical
but, normally, within 5 business days of receiving the medical certification from the employee.
Standard Call off Procedures: Up until the point in time an employee receives an approval for leave
under FMLA (or any other leave of absence), and after the approved leave has expired (even if the
employee is seeking an extension, but the extension has not yet been approved), the employee
2 Unless the service member has designated in writing another individual, “next of kin” means the
nearest relative other than the service member’s spouse, parent or child in the following order:
blood relatives having legal custody by court decree or statute, siblings, grandparents,
aunts/uncles, and first cousins. Where there are multiple individuals in such relationship to the
service member, each is considered the next of kin and all are eligible to take military caregiver
leave consecutively or simultaneously.
City of Plymouth Employee manual - Page 45 – March 2023
