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FMLA Writing Assignment – Outline
Thesis Statement: For the employee to be covered, one must meet certain eligibility
requirements.
I.

Mandatory “eligibility” requirements for employees wishing to take FMLA leave
A. FMLA leave is an unpaid leave that employers give to employees to enable them to fulfill
certain family responsibilities or recover in case of illness
B. The first requirement is the months of service
C. In Pereda v. Brookdale, the court held that the plaintiff was not eligible for FMLA leave

II.

Common reasons an employee may request FMLA leave
A. For an employee to qualify for FMLA leave, he or she must demonstrate one of the
qualifying reasons
B. When requesting leave, the employee should make a notice to the employer 30 days in
advance

III.

Serious health condition
A. One of the qualifying reasons for FMLA is a serious health condition
B. In Breunlin v. Village of Oak Park (2008), Breunlin, an employee of Village of Oak Park,
sued the Village of Oak Park for retaliation claims


Running head: FMLA WRITING

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FMLA Writing Assignment
Name
Institution

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FMLA Writing Assignment
Question 1

FMLA leave is an unpaid leave that employers give to employees to enable them to fulfill
certain family responsibilities or recover in case of illness. The rationale for this leave is that
employees have other needs besides jobs. They have to balance all of them. FMLA leave was
established in 1993 (4). Typically, the leave is given when the employee wants to give birth and
take care of the newborn, take care of an ill spouse when the employee is seriously ill, and when
a family member of the employee is sick (5). The leave goes up to 12 weeks but can be extended
to 26 weeks if the employee will not have recovered (5). After the leave, the employee has all the
job privileges reinstated. Moreover, the employee goes back to the position he or she was before
taking the leave. FMLA leave applicable in both private and public agencies. For the employee
to be covered, one must meet certain eligibility requirements.
The first requirement is the months of service. An employee requesting FMLA leave
must have been employed for more than 12 months. Essentially, when the employee is on leave,
the employer is on the losing side. This is because the input of that employee is no longer there.
As a result, the employer’s productivity drops (7). Sometimes, the employer is necessitated to
add an employee to deliver the work that the employee on leave was doing. In this regard,
FMLA wants to have a win-win situation for employers and employees. That is why it sets 12
months as the minimum period that the employee must have worked for an employer. Certainly,
the employee must have given good input to the employer to deserve leave. This requirement
prevents employees who were employed recently from going for leave (7). In counting the years
of length of service, the breaks that an employee has had in the course of employment are not

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counted. The second requirement is the hours of service. The employee requesting FMLA leave
must have worked for the employer for 1250 hours. This is exclusive of the holiday, vacations,
and sick days. The requirement is designed to ensure that the employer does not lose the
employee’s absence. The third eligibility requirement is the number of employees that an
employer has (4). For the employee to be given FMLA leave, the employer must have employed
at least 50 employees.
In Pereda v. Brookdale, the plaintiff was not eligible for FMLA leave. Thus, the court
dismissed the plaintiff's retaliation claims (1). In this case, the plaintiff, Kathryn Pereda, joined
Brookdale in October 2008. In November 2009, she requested FMLA leave to prepare for giving
birth since she was heavily pregnant. However, the employer told him that he would give him
any other leave other than FMLA leave. In light of this, Pereda took a break to give birth. He
notified the supervisor. When she returned to work, she found that she had already been fired (1).
That is when she sued the employer. The court's reasoning in dismissing the plaintiff’s retaliation
claims is based on the plaintiff’s failure to meet the month of service. One of the eligibility
requirements for FMLA leave is having worked for a minimum of 12 months. In this case,
Pereda had worked for the employee only for 11 months. So, she was not eligible.
Question 2
For an employee to qualify for FMLA leave, he or she must demonstrate one of the
qualifying reasons. The reasons were established to prevent employees from going for leave
because of petty reasons. One of the reasons is suffering a serious health condition. An illness
would make the employee incapable of performing the essential job duties (3). In this regard, an
FMLA leave is given to such employees to enable them to receive the necessary care. When the

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employee is out for family leave, the time is regarded as a period of incapacity. For the employee
to be given FMLA leave based on this reason, the employee must have a medical certification
showing that the employee’s health condition is chronic. The second reason is the time to take
care of an ailing family member. In this regard, an employee is granted FMLA leave if his or her
child, spouse, parent, or in-laws has a serious illness (5). Thirdly, an employee is given FMLA
leave for pregnancy reasons. Pregnancy, especially shortly before birth, is similar to a serious
illness. The heavily pregnant woman needs considerable bed rest. In this regard, the employee
having pregnancy-related complications is given FMLA leave. Fourth, FMLA is given for the
reason for placing a child under foster care. Essentially, the process of adopting foster care is not
easy (6). It may require some time. In this regard, FMLA considers this process to be a
qualifying reason. The fifth qualifying reason is the birth of a child. FMLA leave is given to
fathers whose spouses have given birth (3). Essentially, the spouse becomes incapacitated after
giving birth. In this regard, the father may sometimes be given off to care for the spouse. Sixth,
the employee is given an FMLA leave to take care of a family member who was injured in the
military.
When requesting leave, the employee should make a notice to the employer 30 days in
advance. In this notice, the employee provides the need to leave. The need should be foreseeable.
In the same notice, the employee indicates the time when the need is foreseeable and when it is
not foreseeable. The purpose of giving all this information is to show that the employee meets all
the qualifying reasons (7). The employee should explain these reasons using simple words. Even
without mentioning FMLA leave, the employer will know that what the employee is asking for is
FMLA leave (4). When an employer gets the FMLA leave request from the employee, he or she
asks the employee to provide medical certification that supports his need for leave. This mostly

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applies where the reason for requesting leave is the serious health condition of the employee or a
member of his or her family. The certification comes from healthcare providers. Where the leave
is because of pregnancy, the employer asks the employee to provide a certification showing that
she has a pregnancy-related complication. In essence, the employer asks for the information that
is used to assess whether the reason stated is qualifying for an FMLA leave or not (5). In this
regar...