Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)

The Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provides 12 weeks of unpaid leave to qualifying employees who need time off from work to care for their own or an immediate family member's serious health condition. This allows for continued medical benefits and restoration of their original position upon return. An employee is eligible when they:

• Have worked for the same employer for the previous 12 months
• Have worked at least 1,250 hours in the previous 12 months
• Are employed by a "covered" employer, which is:
  An injury or illness qualifies as a "serious health condition" if it either requires an overnight stay in a medical facility or constitutes "continuing treatment" by a health-care provider. Continuing treatment requires either the employee's incapacity for more than three calendar days and at least two subsequent treatments, or treatment by a health-care provider that results in continuing supervised treatment.

Maryland Flexible Leave Act

The Flexible Leave Act authorizes employees of employers with 15 or more individuals to use "leave with pay" for an illness in the employee's immediate family which includes a child, spouse or parent. Leave with pay is considered time away from work for which an employee is paid and includes sick leave, vacation time, and compensatory time. An employee may only use leave with pay that has been earned. Employees who earn more than one type of leave with pay may elect the type and amount of leave with pay to be used. An employee who uses leave with pay under this law is required to comply with the terms of any collective bargaining agreement or employment policy.

The Flexible Leave Act prohibits an employer from discharging, demoting, suspending, disciplining or otherwise discriminating against an employee or threatening to take any of these actions against an employee who exercises rights under this law. This law does not affect leave granted under the Federal Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA).