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Employee Information

Contacting the Leave Management Unit (LMU)

For questions relating to your FMLA leave please reach out to a Leave Management Specialist at 1-866-828-1745 or via email at DHR.LeaveManagementUnit@Vermont.gov.

Please see the “LMU Transition Schedule” for details about the departments and agencies currently being served by the LMU. In time, the Leave Management Unit will serve all classified employees within the executive branch of State Government. Employees in departments and agencies not currently being served by the LMU may reach out to their DHR Field Representative with questions.

Family Medical Leave Information

The Executive Branch of State Government provides different types of leaves of absence to assist employees with: their own personal medical reasons; 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.

Eligibility

State of Vermont employees are eligible for family medical leave, parental leave, military exigency leave and/or military caregiver leave if they have:

  • Completed original probation; or
  • Been employed by Vermont state government for at least 12 months; and
  • Worked at least an average of 20 hours per week; or
  • A minimum of 1,250 hours in the 12-month period preceding the commencement of the leave.

Family Medical Leave (FML)

Family Medical leave covers the serious illness of an eligible employee, the serious illness of someone in the employee’s immediate family, or medical care during an employee’s pregnancy. Eligible employees can take job-protected leave for specified family and medical reasons, with continuation of group health insurance coverage under the same terms and conditions as if the employee had not taken leave. State of Vermont employees can use their accrued leave balances (in accordance with the applicable Collective Bargaining Agreements) or take unpaid leave.

Entitlement

Eligible employees receive twelve (12) workweeks of designated, job protected leave in a 12-month period for:

a serious health condition that makes the employee unable to perform the essential functions of his or her job;
to care for the eligible employee’s parent, grandparent, spouse, child, brother, sister, parent-in-law, grandchild, foster child, stepchild or ward who lives with the employee, any person residing with the employee, and any family member for whom an employee is primarily responsible either to arrange for health care or to provide care, who has a serious health condition

An employee who qualifies for Family Medical Leave may take the leave as one continuous block of time, as intermittent leave, or on a reduced schedule as medically necessary. If an employee takes leave on an intermittent or reduced leave schedule, only the amount of leave actually taken counts towards the leave entitlement.

Required Documentation for FMLA

The state may require employees to submit certification from an appropriate healthcare provider to validate the need for Family Medical Leave.

Parental Leave

Parental leave covers an absence from employment following the birth or delivery of an employee’s child or within a year following the initial placement of a child sixteen years of age or younger for adoption; to bond with the newborn or newly placed child.

Entitlement

Members of the Non-Management, Corrections, Supervisory, and Vermont Troopers' Association Bargaining Units (either parent) are eligible for a job protected leave of absence, up to four months (16 weeks) in length in a 12-month period. This leave may be taken in one continuous block of time or, at the state’s discretion, it may grant an employee’s request for intermittent leave or reduced schedule leave. The leave can also be extended through an approved, unpaid administrative leave of absence.

Required Documentation for Parental Leave

To request parental leave an employee should send a written summary of the request outlining the anticipated leave.  The request should be submitted a minimum of 30 days in advance of the begin date, unless there is something that prevents them from doing so.  This notice should include the anticipated first day of leave (in many cases this is the estimated due date) and the planned return to work date.  

Military Exigency Leave

Eligible employees may take up to 12 work weeks of job-protected leave in a 12-month period for a “qualifying exigency” arising out of the foreign deployment of the employee’s spouse, child (even if older than 18), or parent as a provision of the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA).

Eligible employees may take FMLA leave for a qualifying exigency while the military member is on covered active duty, or has been notified of an impending call or order to covered active duty. For members of the Regular Armed Forces, covered active duty is defined as deployment to a foreign country (areas outside the US or into international waters). Whereas for members of the National Guard or Reserve components of the Armed Forces, covered active duty is duty during deployment of the member with the Armed Forces to a foreign country under a call or order to active duty in a contingency operation.

Qualifying Exigency Scenarios

There are eight general groups of qualifying activities.

Short-Notice Deployments -To resolve issues relating to a short-notice deployment, employees are eligible for a period of up to seven days from the day the military member receives notice of deployment, to address any issue that arises from the short-notice deployment. 

Legal, Financial and Administrative -To attend to legal, financial, or administrative preparations for a deployment.

Deployment Activities - To attend deployment-related military activities.

Childcare -To resolve childcare and related issues that are directly related to the deployment.

Parent Care -To resolve urgent issues relating to the care of the service member’s parent, who is incapable of caring for his or her self.

Return from Deployment -To attend post-deployment military activities, extending up to 90 days after the end of the deployment.

R&R - Military Family Leave provides for up to 15 days of leave to be taken at the time of the service member’s Rest and Recuperation (R&R) leave.

Other - Military Family Leave may also be used for a non-listed purpose, with the agreement of the employer and the employee.

Required Documentation for Exigency Leave

The state may require employees to submit certification providing the appropriate facts related to the exigency for which leave is sought.  For example, if you are taking leave to meet with an alternate childcare provider or a financial consultant, the state may require you to provide the contact information of the third party with whom the employee is meeting.  If you are seeking leave to spend time with a military member on Rest and Recuperation leave, the state may request a copy of the military member’s Rest and Recuperation orders, or other documentation confirming the dates of the member’s leave.

Military Caregiver Leave

FMLA Military caregiver leave allows an eligible State of Vermont employee who is the spouse, son, daughter, parent, or next of kin of a covered service member with a serious injury or illness to take up to a total of 26 workweeks of leave during a “single 12-month period” to provide care for the service member.

A covered service member is a current member of the Armed Forces, including a member of the National Guard or Reserves, who is receiving medical treatment, recuperation, or therapy, or is in outpatient status, or is on the temporary disability retired list for a serious injury or illness.  A serious injury or illness is one that is incurred by a service member in the line of duty on active duty that may cause the service member to be medically unfit to perform the duties of his or her office, grade, rank, or rating.  A serious injury or illness also includes injuries or illnesses that existed before the service member’s active duty and that were aggravated by service in the line of duty on active duty.

Please note that Military caregiver leave is available to an eligible employee once per service member, per serious injury or illness.

Required Documentation for Caregiver Leave

The State of Vermont requires that leave to care for a covered service member be supported by a certification completed by an appropriate health care provider.

Planning for Your Leave:

1.            Notify your manager and/or the Leave Management Unit.

2.            Complete the appropriate FMLA Certification Form at least 30 days in advance of the leave (or with as much advance notice as possible) and submit it to the Leave Management Unit.

4.            Code your timesheet using the appropriate Time Reporting Codes (TRCs)

5.            Inform your manager of your intended date of return to work, if known.

How Your Entitlement is Calculated

An entitlement period begins the first day you report your absence for your designated FML, Parental, or Military Exigency leave of absence on your timesheet and continues for 12 months.

The single 12-month period for military caregiver leave begins on the first day the employee takes leave for this reason and ends 12 months later, regardless of the 12-month period established for other FMLA leave reasons.

Employees are entitled to up to 12-weeks in a 12-month period for FMLA and 16-weeks in a 12-month period for parental leave, or when on an intermittent or reduced schedule the equivalent in hours. A leave management specialist can assist you with tracking your entitlement.

Time Reporting Codes

While on FMLA you have the ability to be unpaid or to supplement your leave with earned paid leave. Below you will find a list of Time Reporting Codes (“TRCs”) used to report your approved FMLA leave.  The TRCs are located on your timesheet and should be used for authorized, FMLA-qualifying absences.

Time Reporting Code (TRC)               Description of TRC

FANNL                                                              FMLA Annual

FCOMP                                                             FMLA Comp used

FPERS                                                                FMLA Personal

FSICK                                                                 FMLA Sick

UFMLA                                                              FMLA Unpaid

 

Use of Leave Accruals While on a Designated Leave of Absence

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.  

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 you reach out to inform your supervisor of your absence you should specifically reference the qualifying reason for leave or the need for FMLA leave.   For example, if you have been previously certified for intermittent leave due to migraine headaches, when you call in to notify your supervisor that you will be either late or absent, you should either specifically state that you will be late because of a migraine headache or because you need FMLA leave.

Failure to adhere to call out procedures may result in denial of your request for leave. You would then be considered off-payroll without authorization and may be subject to appropriate disciplinary action, up to and including dismissal from employment.