FMLA in Puerto Rico: 12 weeks with your job protected (but unpaid)

What it is and what it is not

The FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act) is the federal law that provides **job-protected** leave for family and medical reasons. The key word is protected, not paid.

The U.S. Department of Labor says it plainly: FMLA is job-protected, unpaid leave. You may use employer-provided paid leave at the same time if the reason is covered by their policy, and the employer may also **require** you to use your paid leave during FMLA leave.

What it does guarantee, and it is not small: that on return you are restored to the same or a virtually identical position, and that your group health plan is maintained under the same conditions as if you had not taken leave.

The three conditions you must meet at once

This is where many people fall out, because all three must hold together. Two is not enough.

• Have worked **at least 12 months** for a covered employer. They need not be consecutive.
• Have **at least 1,250 hours of service** with that employer in the 12 months before the leave starts. That is roughly 24 hours a week all year: a low-hours part-timer can fall out right here.
• Work at a location where the employer has **50 or more employees within 75 miles**.

The 50-employee threshold, seen from Puerto Rico

This is the part that changes the answer for many people here, and it is worth reading in full before counting yourself out.

**Private employer:** covered if it employs 50 or more employees in 20 or more workweeks in the current or previous calendar year. The corner store, the shop, the four-person office; those are not covered, and there the FMLA simply does not apply.

**A public agency is covered regardless of how many employees it has.** That includes federal, state and municipal government. In Puerto Rico, where government is among the largest employers, that pulls many people out of limbo who assumed they were excluded because their agency office is small.

**Local educational agencies** are also covered regardless of employee count, public school boards, public elementary and secondary schools, and private elementary and secondary schools.

And mind the 75 miles before ruling yourself out: the rule does not count only the people in your own location, but the employer's employees **within a 75-mile radius** of your worksite. On an island the size of Puerto Rico that radius reaches much of the territory, so a chain with several small branches can clear 50 even if your store has six people. If that is your situation, the right question for your employer is not "how many of us are here?" but "how many employees does the company have within 75 miles?".

What it can be used for, and how much

FMLA protects leave for the birth of a child or the placement of a child for adoption or foster care; to care for a child, spouse or parent with a serious health condition; for a serious health condition of your own that makes you unable to work; and for reasons related to a family member's military service.

Within the military category there are two: qualifying exigency leave, for reasons tied to a family member's foreign deployment, and military caregiver leave, when the family member is a current servicemember or recent veteran with a serious injury or illness.

The amount: up to **12 workweeks** in a 12-month period for any FMLA reason, and up to **26 workweeks** of military caregiver leave during a single 12-month period.

It counts by your week, not a standard one. The fact sheet's own example: someone working 32 hours a week uses up to 32 hours of FMLA per week for 12 weeks; someone working 50 uses up to 50.

You do not have to take it all at once

You may take the leave all at once or (when medically necessary) in separate blocks of time, or by reducing the hours you work each day or week. Intermittent leave is also available for military family reasons.

The fact sheet's example: a cook who works Tuesday through Saturday uses five hours of FMLA every other Friday evening to take his father to dialysis, and occasionally five more hours on other evenings. That is legitimate FMLA, not absenteeism.

The exception: for bonding with a newborn or newly placed child, intermittent or reduced-schedule leave **applies only if the employee and the employer agree**.

How you request it (and you need not say "FMLA")

One detail that saves people trouble: **you do not have to ask for "FMLA leave" by name**. What you must do is give enough information for the employer to realize the leave may be covered by the FMLA.

Notice goes as soon as possible and practical. If you know you have a procedure scheduled in three weeks for a serious health condition, you give notice as soon as it is scheduled, not the week before.

The employer may ask for information from your health care provider before approving the leave, and must allow you **15 calendar days** to provide it. If your provider cannot complete the certification in time, you must be allowed additional time.

What the employer cannot do

The employer cannot threaten, discriminate against, punish, suspend or fire you for requesting or using FMLA leave. And the fact sheet names concrete violations that often go unrecognized as such:

• Writing you up for missing work when you were using FMLA leave.
• Denying you a promotion because you used FMLA leave.
• Assessing negative attendance points for FMLA use.
• Changing the number of shifts assigned to you.
• Moving you to a location outside your normal commuting area.
• Denying you a bonus for which you qualified before taking the leave.

The FMLA does not replace Puerto Rico law

This matters and the fact sheet says it: nothing in the FMLA prevents an employee from receiving protections under other laws. **Workers have the right to benefit from all the laws that apply.**

In practice that means Puerto Rico's maternity leave, vacation and sick leave remain yours, and the FMLA sits on top as job protection. Each has its own guide here.

It also works in your favor coming back from military service: any period of absence covered by USERRA **counts** toward the FMLA's months and hours of service requirements. Time on activation does not erase your eligibility.

If your right is violated

The Wage and Hour Division administers and enforces the FMLA for most employees. If you believe your rights were violated, you may file a complaint with them or file a private lawsuit against your employer in court.

The federal complaint is confidential and costs nothing to file; we walk through it step by step in another guide, with the office serving Puerto Rico and everything they will ask for.

Two exceptions worth knowing: state employees may face certain limitations in pursuing direct lawsuits over leave for their own serious health condition, and most federal employees are covered but fall under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management rather than the Wage and Hour Division.

The Department of Labor warns that its fact sheets are general information, not official statements of position like the regulations, and that their contents do not have the force and effect of law.