A Leave of Absence is essentially any employee absence from work not covered by other benefits such as paid time off, paid holidays, etc. These absences may be either paid or unpaid depending on the type of absence. Jury duty, for example, would be a paid leave of absence. Furthermore, the employee’s benefits may or may not be continued during the time of the Leave of Absence. The important common factor for any type of official Leave of Absence is that the employee retains employment status whether or not pay or benefits are continued.
Some examples of required types of Leave of Absence include:
An effective Leave of Absence policy statement should contain the following:
More details on FMLA are available from the Department of Labor.
For employers of Armed Service members, more USERRA information is available from the Department of Labor, as well.