Earlier this month, the DOL’s Wage and Hour Division issued new model forms for employers to use when administering employee leave under the FMLA. The revised model notice of rights, certification, and designation forms were immediately effective and are now available to assist employers and employees in meeting their FMLA notice and certification obligations.
The federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) covers private employers with 50 or more employees as well as public agencies and public and private elementary or secondary schools, regardless of the number of employees. The FMLA generally entitles eligible employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave in a 12-month period for specified family and medical reasons and additional leave to care for a covered servicemember.
All covered employers must post a general notice about the FMLA (FMLA poster) in each workplace and distribute a notice to new hires. Additionally, covered employers who have FMLA-eligible employees must provide them with notices about: FMLA eligibility status, rights, and responsibilities; when specific leave is designated as FMLA leave; and the amount of time that will count against their FMLA leave entitlement. When an employee requests FMLA leave due to their own or a covered family member’s serious health condition, or for military family leave, the employer may require appropriate certification.
The DOL’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) released revised versions in mid July of its model notice of rights, certification, and designation forms under the FMLA. According to the WHD, the new forms, which are effective immediately, are “simpler and easier for employees, employers, leave administrators and healthcare providers to understand and use.”
The following updated FMLA forms are now available to assist employers and employees in meeting their FMLA notification and certification obligations:
These optional-use forms can be used by employers to provide required notices and by employees to provide certification of their need for FMLA qualifying leave. The new forms are electronically fillable PDFs that can be saved and transmitted electronically. Employers may still use the agency’s prior model forms or they may use their own forms, as long as they provide the same basic notice information and require only the same basic certification information.
To some extent, the new model forms simplify FMLA administration by substituting check boxes for some previously required written responses. The revised Notice of Eligibility & Rights and Responsibilities form contains additional information on the substitution of paid leave and concurrent leave usage during a qualifying FMLA absence. The revised certification forms similarly include additional information on the circumstances in which employers may obtain follow-up information from health care providers and are reorganized to make it easier to determine whether a serious health condition exists. As the WHD made clear, an employee who already provided the required FMLA information using the old certification form cannot be required to provide that same information using the revised form.
Notably, the WHD did not revise the FMLA poster or issue a generic “Fitness-for-Duty” certification. Further, the new forms do not address the paid sick leave or expanded FMLA leave requirements of the Family First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA).