First Circuit rules that holidays are correctly counted as FMLA leave

11/8/07

A federal appeals court recently held that holidays are to be counted against intermittent leave taken in an interval of one week or more under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). 

 

In Mellen v. Trustees of Boston University, No. 07-1151 (1st Cir., 9/21/07), an employee had requested and received intermittent leave under the FMLA in two separate blocks of time.  The University, however, did not extend her leave to account for three holidays that fell within the leave period.  The employee argued that since her leave was intermittent, only the days she actually missed from work, and not holidays, should be counted.  The University maintained that, in calculating the amount of FMLA leave taken, holidays that occurred within a week taken as FMLA leave should be counted against the employee's FMLA leave time.

 

The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit agreed with the University and found that it had properly calculated the employee's FMLA leave.  The court reconciled two separate U.S. Department of Labor regulations governing FMLA leave to find that, if an employee's intermittent leave includes a full, holiday-containing week, the amount of leave used includes the holiday. 

 

This was a case of first impression.  It represents the first published opinion regarding the consequences employees face when taking intermittent leave under the FMLA, where at least one of the weeks taken includes a holiday.