Human Resource Blog

FMLA-sibling

Are there any loopholes with regards to FMLA leave for an employee to care for terminally ill sibling, and/or their intermittant leave to support/care for school aged child through medical treatment of parent?

Unfortunately, no. Those are frequent concerns about FMLA that many employers raise. FMLA permits an employee to take time off for their own serious health condition. It also permits workers to take time off to care for a member of their immediate family with a serious health condition. For FMLA purposes, the immediate family is defined as father, mother, spouse, son or daughter. In most cases (unless the son or daughter is disabled) only minor children are included.

Unfortunately, FMLA does not provide for employees to take time off to care for an in-law, a grandparent, a sibling, an adult child who is not disabled. It also does not permit FMLA leave to care for healthy children. For example, a father or grandmother cannot take FMLA leave to care for children when the mother has cancer.

A new FMLA regulation implemented in 2008 does provide a loophole for military families. A military spouse or family member can take FMLA to care for children when the soldier is deployed on active duty. Also, an injured soldiers next of kin can take up to 26 weeks of FMLA leave (more than twice the usual amount) to care for the soldier.

Hawaii and a few other states have family leave laws that apply to in-laws, grandparents, great-grandparents and domestic partners. A few states have laws that specifically permit parents or guardians to take time off for childrens school activities. Some employers permit workers to take an unpaid leave of absence, even though the employer is not legally obligated to.