This is from the government handbook
"Employees may use FMLA leave in the smallest increment of time the employer allows for the use of other forms of leave, as long as the smallest increment is no more than one hour. If an employer uses different increments for different types of leave (for example, accounting for sick leave in 15-minute increments and vacation leave in one-day increments), the employer must allow FMLA leave to be used in the smallest increment used for any type of leave.
If an employer permits or requires employees to use leave in different increments during specific times of the day (for example, requiring a one-hour increment of leave at the start of the shift and using 15-minute increments for leave at other times), the same increment maybe used for FMLA leave at those specific times of the day. The employer may always allow FMLA leave in shorter increments than used for other forms of leave; however, no work may be performed during any period of time counted as FMLA leave."
OP what is your company's normal policy for other times of leave? Like I mentioned at the insurance company I worked for PTO (that was used for everything) was done in 15 min increments. This applied to all forms of leave too including Bereavement and FMLA but not Jury Duty (that was a different situation).
Additionally:
"An employee may take FMLA leave in periods of weeks, days, hours, and in some cases even less than an hour. The total number of hours in those workweeks that an eligible employee is entitled to take on an intermittent or reduced schedule basis depends on the specific hours the employee would have worked had the employee not taken FMLA leave.
When an employee takes leave for less than one full work week (as would be the case that you want to do where you want to work some of the work day)
, the amount of FMLA leave used is determined as a proportion of the employee’s actual workweek. An employer may convert fractions of a work week to their hourly equivalent as long as the conversion fairly reflects the employee’s total hours.
For example, an eligible employee whose actual workweek is always 32 hours per week is entitled to 384 hours (12 workweeks x 32 hours per week) of FMLA leave in a 12-month period. An eligible employee whose actual workweek is always 48 hours per week is entitled to 576 hours (12 workweeks x 48 hours per week) of FMLA leave in a 12-month period.
When an employee’s schedule varies from week to week so much that it is not possible to determine how many hours the employee would have worked during the week had he or she not taken FMLA leave, an employer may use a weekly average to calculate the employee’s FMLA leave entitlement. The weekly average is determined by the hours scheduled over the 12 months prior to the beginning of the leave and includes any hours for which the employee took any type of leave"
Pertinent to some of the current dialogue:
"An employee on FMLA leave is not protected from actions that would have affected him or her if the employee was not on FMLA leave. For example, if a shift has been eliminated, or overtime has been decreased, an employee would not be entitled to return to work that shift or the original overtime hours. If an employee is laid off during the period of FMLA leave, the employer must be able to show that the employee would have been laid off during the FMLA leave period." This is similar to how my mom was laid off during the early days of the pandemic. So long as they could demonstrate it wasn't due FMLA status (she wasn't on that just using that as an example, you could be on FMLA and yet let go). For one of the poster's point if the company shifts things around on workload that FMLA doesn't protect that if the change would have occurred irrespective of the FMLA usage. The main thing I could find in paperwork about telework was about calculating distance for eligibility (I think 75 miles from a physical site of 50 or more employees) and that telework employees are granted the same FMLA that non-telework employees have. While I haven't dug around through every little place I've yet to find something that states a company must maintain the location of the employee. I see no protection regarding remote work under FMLA that seems to be beyond it's prevue of protections. Technically the OP has what they call "flexi" arrangement since they go into the office some times and work remote other times.
Things are written in FMLA in respects to retaliations which all of us agree is something to watch out for and things that an employer might do to interfere or change in order to make an employee not eligible for FMLA. The pertinent part that I could find on a quick sheet about it was
"Job protection. Employees who use FMLA leave have the right to go back to work at their same job or to an equivalent job that has the same pay, benefits, and other terms and conditions of employment at the end of their FMLA leave. Violations of an employee’s FMLA rights may include changing the number of shifts assigned to the employee, moving the employee to a location outside of his or her normal commuting area, or denying the employee a bonus for which the employee qualified before taking FMLA leave." This was a legal case (a quick search done) reflecting the remote aspect (the employee lost the case regarding their remote work "It held that the FMLA protected Denise’s right to take leave, but it did not entitle her to work remotely. Nor does it make it unlawful for employers to discipline employees who work remotely against employers’ wishes." )
https://www.jjkeller.com/news/artic...-work_id-a47282f5-1516-4165-e5b4-38c40d659b75
(ETA: To add to the above since the case went to the Court of Appeals and pertinent to the remote work the Court of Appeals upheld the District Court's ruling (the one in favor of the employer) "First, she maintains that Regeneron intended to discourage her from caring for her sick daughter by limiting her ability to work remotely and threatening to fire her if she took FMLA leave. But in support of this claim, Kemp cites no admissible evidence of Regeneron’s intent (her own subjective speculation and views about Regeneron’s intent are not admissible).
Second, Kemp contends that Regeneron substantially limited her remote work days and punished her for working remotely. But this argument misunderstands the nature of the benefits conferred by the FMLA. The FMLA protects Kemp’s right to take paid (and thereafter uncompensated) leave for specified reasons and for a specified number of weeks during a 12-month period. It does not entitle employees to work remotely or make it unlawful for an employer to punish an employee who works remotely. Remote work may be another form of accommodation, but it is not “leave” within the meaning of the statute. Because, on this record, Kemp failed to adduce evidence that Regeneron willfully interfered with her use of FMLA benefits, rather than her ability to work remotely, we affirm the District Court’s grant of summary judgment dismissing Kemp’s FMLA claim")
https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca2/23-174/23-174-2024-09-09.html
For record keeping:
"With respect to employees who take FMLA leave intermittently or on a reduced schedule, the employer and employee agree on the employee’s normal schedule or average hours worked each week and reduce that agreement to a written record maintained in the manner required for other FMLA-related records."
Take any of this information as you will.
