Overview
The Federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the Wisconsin Family and Medical Leave Act (WFMLA) provide you with the right to take job-protected leave with continued medical benefits when you need time off from work to care for yourself or a family member who is seriously ill, to care for a newborn or newly adopted child, or to attend to the affairs of a family member who is called to active duty in the military.
You may be eligible for more generous leave provisions. Leave taken for FMLA-eligible reasons must run concurrently under FMLA, WFMLA, and other leave provisions available. The leave available under the various provisions is exhausted simultaneously.
Eligibility
In order to be eligible for family and medical leave, you need to work a specific number of hours during the year. For eligibility purposes, all State of Wisconsin agencies, including the University of Wisconsin System are considered one employer.
WFMLA
You must have worked for the State for at least:
- 52 consecutive weeks; and
- 1,000 hours during the preceding 52-week period. Paid leave used counts towards the 1,000 worked.
FMLA
You must have worked for the State for at least:
- 12 months (months do not need to be consecutive); and
- 1,250 hours during the preceding 12-month period. Only actual hours worked count towards the 1,250 hours.
Eligibility for WFMLA and FMLA is determined by considering all hours worked up to your first day of leave.
Applying for FMLA
Once you know you need to take a leave of absence that will be covered by the Wisconsin and/or Federal Family and Medical Leave Acts, contact your human resources department so they can provide you the proper paperwork and determine how much paid leave you have available for use.
Additional Information
Effective January 1, 2016 W/FMLA leave entitlement is granted on a calendar year basis for all eligible employees.
If leave is taken for a child, a child is defined as a son or daughter who is biological, adopted, a foster child, a stepchild, a legal ward or a child of a person standing in loco parentis to the child. If you are in an in loco parentis relationship with a child, this means that you consider yourself to have a parental relationship to a child but you do not have a legal or biological relationship to the child.
WFMLA
Eligible employees are entitled to:
- Up to six weeks in a calendar for the birth or adoption of a child, to be used within 16 weeks of the birth or placement of that child (no more than one 6-week period per child).
- Up to two weeks in a calendar year to care for a child, spouse, domestic partner, or parent (including parents of your spouse or domestic partner) with a serious health condition.
- Up to two weeks in a calendar year for your own serious health condition.
FMLA
Eligible employees are entitled to:
- Up to twelve weeks of leave in a calendar year for:
- the birth of a child and to care for the newborn child within one year of birth;
- the placement of a child for adoption or foster care with the employee and to care for the newly placed child within one year of placement;
- to care for the employee’s spouse, child, or parent who has a serious health condition;
- a serious health condition that makes the employee unable to perform the essential functions of his or her job;
- any qualifying exigency arising out of the fact that the employee’s spouse, son, daughter or parent is a member of the active or reserve component of the Armed Forces and is on covered active duty or has been notified of a call to active duty in a foreign country or international waters; or
- Up to twenty-six weeks of leave during a single 12-month period to care for a current military service member or eligible veteran* with a serious injury or illness if the employee is the service member’s or veteran’s spouse, son, daughter, parent, or next of kin (military caregiver leave).
- Leave provisions to care for an injured or ill military service member are based on a rolling 12 month schedule.
- In order to be eligible to take a FMLA-covered leave to care for a veteran, the veteran must have been honorably discharged within the 5-year period before the family member first takes military caregiver leave.
Intermittent Leave
An employee may take WFLMA or FMLA on a intermittent or reduced schedule basis. Only the amount of leave actually taken will count against leave entitlements. Reach out to your human resources contact for more information.
You may choose to take your W/FMLA leave as paid or unpaid. Your benefits and continuous service will be uninterrupted regardless of whether or not you take your W/FMLA paid or unpaid. If you take your W/FMLA as unpaid, you are responsible for the employee share of your benefit premiums.
WFMLA
Under WFMLA, you may elect to substitute any type of paid leave (for example, vacation, sick leave or personal holiday), even if you are typically not allowed to use that type of leave.
FMLA
Under FMLA, you may elect to substitute paid leave only per the policies governing that type of leave.
When WFMLA and FMLA run concurrently, you may follow the leave substitutions provisions under WFMLA.
- - Complete and submit this form to your human resources office to request W/FMLA-protected leave. If you request a WFMLA leave to care for a domestic partner or a domestic partner's parent, you must complete this form in order to certify the domestic partnership for WFMLA purposes.
- - Your health care provider must complete this form to certify your serious health condition if you are taking a concurrent FMLA and WFMLA leave. Note: if you are taking a WFMLA leave only - use the WFMLA Certification form (UWS 82a) to certify your own serious health condition.
- - If you are taking a WFMLA leave only - use this form to certify your own serious health condition.
- - Your family member's health care provider must complete this form to certify their serious health condition if you are taking a concurrent FMLA and WFMLA leave. Note: if you are taking a WFMLA leave only - use the WFMLA Certification form (UWS 83a) to certify your family member's serious health condition.
- - If you are taking WFMLA leave only - use this form to certify your family member's serious health condition.
- - Complete and submit this form to your institution to certify that an exigency was created because a family member is on covered active military duty or has been notified of an impending call or order to active duty to a foreign country or international waters. The family member may be in either the regular or reserve component of the Armed Forces.
- - Complete and submit this form to your institution to request FMLA-protected leave to care for a current military servicemember, who is a family member or next of kin, who is seriously ill or injured due to military service.
- - Complete and submit this form to your institution to request FMLA-protected leave to care for a veteran, who is a family member or next of kin, who is seriously ill or injured due to military service.
Every effort has been made to ensure this information is current and correct. Information on this page does not guarantee enrollment, benefits and/or the ability to make changes to your benefits.
Updated: 04/05/2024