The Executive Branch of State Government provides different types of leaves of absence to assist employees with: their own personal serious health condition; caring for a member of the immediate family with a serious health condition; caring for dependent children in instances of illness, birth, or adoption; leave for a qualifying exigency while a covered service member is on active duty, call to active duty status, or has been notified of an impending call or order to active duty; and, caring for a covered service member with a serious injury or illness incurred by a service member in the line of duty while on active duty. Supervisors are an important part of the this process.
Call Out Procedures
The State of Vermont requires employees on FMLA to comply with all usual and customary notice and procedural requirements for requesting leave, absent unusual circumstances.
In addition, when employees reach out to you to inform you of their absence they should specifically reference the qualifying reason for leave or the need for FMLA leave. For example, if your employee has been previously certified for intermittent leave due to migraine headaches, when they call in to notify you that they will be either late or absent, they should either specifically state that they will be late because of a migraine headache or because they are taking FMLA leave.
Failure to adhere to call out procedures may result in denial of their request for leave. At which point they would then be considered off-payroll without authorization and may be subject to appropriate disciplinary action, up to and including dismissal from employment.
Reviewing and Approving Time
While on FMLA employees have the ability to be unpaid or to supplement their leave with earned paid leave. Below you will find a list of Time Reporting Codes (“TRCs”) your employees should use to report their authorized approved FMLA leave. The TRCs are located on the timesheet and should be used for authorized, FMLA-qualifying absences.
If your employees have other time away from work within the pay period not related to their FMLA entitlement they should utilize other TRC’s. For example, if your employee has a designated intermittent leave for a back injury, was away from the office for an appointment related to this injury and wants to utilize sick leave they would code FSICK for this absence. If this same employee also had an annual physical exam within the pay period, they would code SICK for this absence since it wasn’t related to their FMLA.
Time Reporting Code (TRC) Description of TRC
FANNL FMLA Annual
FCOMP FMLA Comp used
FPERS FMLA Personal
FSICK FMLA Sick
UFMLA FMLA Unpaid
It’s important to remember that members of the Non-Management, Corrections, Supervisory, and Vermont Troopers' Association Bargaining Units have the option of utilizing their earned paid leave balances, unpaid time, or any combination of paid and unpaid time. If an employee chooses not to utilize their earned paid leave balances, or if they exhaust their balances, they will be placed in an unpaid leave status (UFMLA). No combination of paid and unpaid leaves shall extend the statutory Family and Medical Leave beyond twelve (12) weeks.
Supervisors should work with employees to ensure there is a plan in place for completion of their timesheet while they are on FMLA. Some employees will complete their timesheets themselves from home, others may want to work with a time entry delegate in their absence from work.