EIU Benefit Services

Family Medical Leave Act

Family Medical Leave Act entitles eligible employees to take reasonable leave up to twelve weeks per year for a serious medical condition amongst themselves or a family member or twenty-six weeks per year to care for a covered service member with a serious injury or illness.

An employee should contact Benefits Office if he or she will be off work for five consecutive days for the following qualifications:

• Birth or adoption of a child
• Care of a child, spouse, or parent due to a serious health condition
• Care of a covered service member with a serious injury or illness
• Employee is unable to perform functions of his or her position due to a serious health condition

Carefully read Internal Governing Policy #7.1 before applying for FMLA. 

Eligibility

To be eligible for FMLA, an EIU employee must:

• have worked for EIU for at least twelve months and
• have worked at least 1,250 hours of service during the previous twelve months (1,000 hours after January 1, 2022).

If an employee is ineligible for FMLA, he or she will complete a Non-FMLA application to be approved by the department.

Requirements

• Employee must provide medical certification for health care provider

• Employees must exhaust all paid leave (sick, annual, compensatory time balances) before taking unpaid leave under FMLA. The order of paid leave usage for an FMLA related event is as follows:

  1. sick leave
  2. accrued leave
  3. compensatory time

Applications

• Employee FMLA 
• Family Member FMLA
• Non-FMLA

Please return completed applications to the Benefits Office.

Parental Leave - Non-Negotiated Employees

Upon the birth or adoption of a child, eligible EIU employees may choose to use up to 4 consecutive weeks of paid parental leave, or up to 20 consecutive workdays. Individuals (and their eligible partners) who elect to use this benefit, in full or part, shall agree to serve at the University for at least one year after the completion of the Parental Leave, and are required to sign a promissory note to access this leave benefit. The promissory note can be found at this link.

The full parental leave policy is located in this IGP.