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Bereavement leave must be approved by the Executive Director. The LSBA reserves the right to
request satisfactory evidence with a request for bereavement leave.

3.11 FAMILY AND MEDICAL LEAVE ACT (FMLA)

The LSBA’s policies and benefit provisions are in compliance with the Family and Medical Leave Act
(“FMLA”). Further written information on the FMLA can be obtained from the Executive Director.
The following items outline some of the highlights of the FMLA that may be helpful:

 Employees are eligible for unpaid leave under the FMLA when they have worked for the
LSBA for at least 12 months and for at least 1,250 hours during the 12 months preceding the
leave. All periods of absence from work due to or necessitated by USERRA covered service is
counted in determining an employee’s eligibility for FMLA leave.

 The law allows eligible Employees to take up to 12 workweeks during a 12- month period. The
LSBA uses the “measuring forward method” to calculate the 12-month period in which leave
entitlement is measured. Under this method, the 12-month period is measured forward from
the date the employee first takes leave.

 The foregoing provisions on hours worked and the time allowed for FMLA vary with respect to
service member and military member leave, as noted above and as more fully described below.

 Reasons for leave include the birth of a child or placement of a child with an Employee for
adoption or foster care or to care for a spouse, son, daughter or parent with a serious health
condition, or for an Employee’s own serious health condition that renders him/her unable to
perform his/her job. Note: for purposes of FMLA leave taken for birth or adoption, or to care
for a family member with a serious health condition, son or daughter means a biological,
adopted or foster child, a stepchild, a legal ward, or a child of a person who is either under 18,
or 18 or older and “incapable of self-care because of a physical or mental disability” at the time
the FMLA leave is to begin.

 Amendments to the FMLA enacted as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal
year 2008 and regulations issued by the Department of Labor provide additional job-protected
leave rights to eligible Employees who provide care for a covered service member with a
serious injury or illness or because of qualifying exigencies arising out of the fact that a
covered military member is on covered active duty or has been notified of an impending call or
order to covered active duty in support of a contingency operation. “Covered active duty”
requires deployment to a foreign country. “Covered military member” includes both members
of the National Guard and Reserves and the regular armed forces. A “covered service member”
is defined as (i) a veteran whose discharge or release was not dishonorable at any time during
the five year period prior to the first date the eligible employee takes FMLA leave to care for
the covered veteran and who has a serious illness or injury that occurred or was aggravated in
the line of duty; or (ii) an active service member who has a serious illness or injury that
occurred or was aggravated in the line of duty. The definition of covered service member is
expanded to include covered veterans who are undergoing medical treatment, recuperation, or
therapy for a serious illness or injury.

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