Home Health & Hospice Week

The fate of non-competes isn’t the only thing you have to worry about in the labor law realm.

In a May 30 letter, the Department of Labor addresses a question regarding “when an employee takes FMLA leave during weeks in which there is a holiday.” More specifically, “you ask whether the employee taking leave during a week that includes a holiday is using a fraction of the employee’s usual workweek (a workweek without a holiday), or if the employee is using a fraction of a reduced workweek,” Wage and Hour Division Principal Deputy Administrator Jessica Looman notes in letter no. FMLA2023-2-A.

The decision: “Under the FMLA, the employee’s normal workweek is the basis of the employee’s leave entitlement,” Looman explains. “If a holiday occurs during an employee’s workweek, and the employee works for part of the week and uses FMLA leave for part of the week, the holiday does not reduce the amount of the employee’s FMLA leave entitlement unless the employee was required to report for work on the holiday.”

In other words, “if the employee was not expected or scheduled to work on the holiday, the fraction of the workweek of leave used would be the amount of FMLA leave taken (which would not include the holiday) divided by the total workweek (which would include the holiday),” Looman illustrates.

The four-page letter is at www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/ files/WHD/opinion-letters/FMLA/2023_05_30_02_FMLA. pdf.