The Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor issued an opinion letter (FMLA 2023-2-A) explaining the interplay between an employer’s recognized holidays and an employee’s Family and Medical Leave Act leave entitlement.
In the letter, the DOL explains that for FMLA purposes, an employee’s normal workweek is the basis for the employee’s leave entitlement. If an employer-recognized holiday occurs during the employee’s workweek and the employee works for part of the week and uses FMLA for part of the week, the holiday does not reduce the amount of the employee’s FMLA leave entitlement unless the employee was required to work on the holiday. If the employee was not expected or scheduled to work on the holiday, the fraction of the workweek of leave used would be the amount of leave taken, not including the holiday, divided by the total workweek including the holiday.
A copy of the Opinion Letter may be accessed by clicking here.
