The Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provides certain employees with up to 12 workweeks of unpaid, job-protected leave a year, and requires group health benefits to be maintained during the leave as if employees continued to work instead of taking leave.

Small businesses are exempt from teh FMLA and must have more than fifty full time employees to come under its perview. If FMLA does not apply, state laws do.

To qualify, the employee must:

1) work for an employer subject to FMLA rules;

2) have worked for that employer for a total of 12 months;

3) have worked at least 1,250 hours over the previous 12 months;

4) work at a location in the United States or in any territory or possession of the United States where at least 50 employees are employed by the employer within 75 miles

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