The rules that decide FMLA coverage: Your employer has at least 50 employees within 75 miles of your job site. Government, or public, employers (federal, state, county, or local government) are covered by FMLA, no matter how many employees.
What employees count towards 50:
- Every employee counts – if they were on the payroll for any part of the week. Employees who are on leave (even unpaid) count, if they are getting other benefits.
- Part-time, management, temporary, leased, and on-leave workers all count.
- Workers who don’t have FMLA rights (haven’t worked long enough or enough hours) are counted to decide if an employer has enough employees to be covered by FMLA.
- If there are 50 employees for 20 weeks in the year, then the company is covered by FMLA for that year and the next year.
Jobsite or Worksite: Your jobsite is where you report to work or where you get your assignments from. For FMLA, your home can never be your jobsite.
75 miles from your jobsite: this is measured as the shortest way to get from one workplace to a second workplace, usually by road. Sometimes, other common transportation (boat or plane) is counted.
12 months of service: includes paid time off (like vacation or sick time). So, if you started working a year ago and haven’t had an unpaid leave, you have 12 months of service.
1250 hours of work: Counts all the hours you actually work, including overtime or on-call hours. It doesn’t count paid time off (like vacation or sick time). If there's no record of your hours, it is assumed that you worked 1250 hours.