Can you use medical leave to take care of your grandmother? Imagine your grandmother has had hip replacement surgery, and is going to require extensive care for the next several weeks. You approach your boss for some time off and are denied. But what about the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), you challenge. Does it not provide time off to care for family members? If you find yourself in a confrontation with your employer over the provisions of FMLA, an employment law attorney may be able to assist.

Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) Provisions

FMLA provides that eligible employees are allowed to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected time off with continued group health insurance coverage in certain circumstances.  The part of the law relevant to this situation is pretty explicit: An employee may take the time off of work to care for a spouse, child or parent with a serious health issue. Grandparents are not mentioned. It looks pretty cut-and-dried. Or is it?

Family Medical Leave Act and Parental Relationships

In fact, the FMLA does have some wiggle room when it comes to defining family relationships.   The law actually provides consideration to those who are able to demonstrate a factual, or in loco parentis relationship. This refers to anyone who has essentially served in a parenting role toward the employee. Now, the law does not specify exactly how that parenting role presents, but some factors might include:

• Providing food, shelter, and clothing;
• Addressing medical needs and having health insurance;
• Providing transportation to and from school.

If an employee can establish that his of her grandparent raised him or her, or, at a minimum, met the above criteria, he or she may have a case for in loco parentis status. If, indeed, the grandparent discharged obligations as in a parent-child relationship when the employee was a minor child, FMLA may cover time off of work now for the employee to care for his or her grandparent.

Of note, the in loco parentis interpretation goes even further. The individual who took on the parenting role does not even have to have a legal or biological relationship to the employee.  Simply showing that that person provided financial support and performed duties typically associated with a parent is generally enough.

Employer Rights

Employers are entitled to documentation of any claims of in loco parentis relationships, of course, just as they may seek documentation showing the need for FMLA in other allowed circumstances. That documentation, however, can simply be the employee’s assertion of the relationship with minimal details. [Read more…]