Your office is in New Mexico, and your employee works remotely, out of state. The employee comes to you requesting leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Are they eligible?
We know the federal requirements of working at least 1,250 hours and 12 months of service. How does the condition “employs 50 or more employees within a 75-mile radius” come into play? If your organization is a covered employer, and the employee meets the tenure and hours worked, your remote employee is likely eligible for FMLA benefits.
According to the Code of Federal Regulations, 825.111, paragraph two applies to remote and off-site workers. The regulations state, "An employee's personal residence is not a worksite in the case of employees, such as salespersons, who travel a sales territory and who generally leave to work and return from work to their personal residence, or employees who work at home, as under the concept of flexiplace or telecommuting. Rather, their worksite is the office to which they report and from which assignments are made."
In other words, home offices are not worksites. A remote worker’s worksite is the office the employee reports to or from which work expectations are made. With this understanding, most, if not all, remote employees would count toward the 50 threshold at the worksite to which they report.
So, yes, you may begin the FMLA process if your remote employee reports to your New Mexico office.
For more information on FMLA, please see Employers Council’s whitepaper. If you have any questions, email the Member Experience team.
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