§ 82-605. Eligibility

(a) Eligible employees (includes part-time). Employees eligible to request family and medical leave are those who:

(1) Have been employed by the county for at least 12 months in the last seven years.

Employment periods before a separation that is older than seven years will not count towards eligibility unless the break in service is due to National Guard or reserve military service obligations); and

(2) Have worked at least 1,250 hours during the 12-month period preceding the commencement of the leave.

A person re-employed following military service shall have the hours that would have been worked for the county added to any hours actually worked during the previous 12-month period to meet the 1250 hour requirement.

(b) Qualifying reasons for leave. The county is required to grant leave to eligible employees:

(1) For the birth of a child, or placement of a child by adoption or foster care;

(2) To care for an eligible family member with a serious health condition;

(3) To take medical leave because of a serious health condition that makes the employee unable to work at all or unable to perform any one of the essential functions of the employee's job;

(4) To care for a current member of the armed forces with a serious injury or illness incurred in the line of duty on active duty if the employee is the spouse, son, daughter, parent, or next of kin of the service member; or

(5) Because of any qualifying exigency arising out of the fact that the employee's spouse, son, daughter, or parent is a covered military member on active duty (or has been notified of an impending call or order to active duty) in support of a contingency operation.

(c) Eligible family members. Family members for whom the employee may take family and medical leave include:

(1) Spouse: a legal husband or wife, including common law marriage. The employee must have a signed and filed legal declaration of informal marriage considered lawful in the State of Texas for purposes of common law spouses.

(2) Parent: a biological, adoptive, step or foster parent or an individual who had day-to-day responsibility to care for and financially support the employee when the employee was a child, (in-laws are excluded);

(3) Child: a biological, adopted or foster child, a stepchild, a legal ward, or a child of a person standing in loco parentis, who is either under age 18, or age 18 or older and incapable of self-care because of a mental or physical disability at the time FMLA leave is to begin.

For purposes of son or daughter of a covered military service member or son or daughter on active duty or call to active duty status, the child who is on active duty or called to active duty may be of any age.

(4) Next of kin of a covered service member: the nearest blood relative other than the service member's spouse, parent, son, or daughter in the following order of priority: Blood relatives who have been granted legal custody of the covered service member by court decree or statutory provisions, brothers and sisters, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and first cousins, unless the covered service member has specifically designated in writing another blood relative as his nearest blood relative for purposes of military caregiver leave.

(d) Defined leave time. The defined 12-month period, as applicable to this article, will be calculated by taking the 12 consecutive calendar months forward from the date family and medical leave begins. Only 12 weeks of family and medical leave will be granted per a consecutive 12-month period except for military caregiver leave where 26 weeks of leave during a 12-month period will be granted.

(e) Serious condition. A serious health condition means an illness, injury, impairment, or physical or mental condition that involves:

(1) Patient care (e.g., overnight stay) in a hospital, hospice or residential medical care facility, including any subsequent treatment in connection with such inpatient care;

(2) Any period of incapacity (e.g., inability to work, attend school or perform other regular daily activities) due to the serious health condition, including treatment for the serious health condition or recovery from the serious health condition;

Treatment includes but is not limited to examinations to determine if a serious health condition exists and evaluations of the condition. Treatment does not include routine physical examinations, eye examinations, or dental examinations.

(3) Continuing treatment by a health care provider (e.g., medical doctors, podiatrists, optometrists, dentists, psychologists, Christian Science practitioner) for a serious health condition that results in a period of incapacity of more than three consecutive calendar days that involves treatment two or more times, within 30 days of the first day of incapacity or treatment by a health care provider on at least one occasion that results in a regimen of continuing treatment under the supervision of the health care provider and any subsequent treatment or period of incapacity relating to the same condition (see intermittent and reduced leave schedule);

For purposes of FMLA leave, a regimen of continuing treatment does not include taking over-the-counter medications, bed-rest, drinking fluids, exercise, and other similar activities that can be initiated without a visit to a health care provider. These activities are not themselves sufficient to constitute family and medical leave.

The requirement for treatment by a health care provider means an in-person visit to a health care provider. The first in-person treatment visit must take place within seven days of the first day of incapacity.

(4) Any period of incapacity or treatment for such incapacity due to a chronic serious health condition which:

a. Requires periodic visits at least twice a year for treatment;

b. Continues over an extended period of time (including recurring episodes of a single underlying condition); and

c. May cause episodic rather than a continuing period of incapacity (e.g., asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, etc.); or

(5) Any period of incapacity due to pregnancy or for prenatal care.

(6) Any period of incapacity due to permanent or long-term conditions for which treatment may not be effective (e.g. Alzheimer, severe stroke, or the final stages of a disease). The employee or family member must be under the continuing supervision of, but need not be receiving active treatment, by a health care provider.

(f) Family leave. Both the mother and father are entitled to family leave for the birth, adoption or foster care placement of a child. Leave must be taken:

(1) Within 12 months of the birth, adoption or foster care placement; and

(2) All at once, unless:

a. Agreed to otherwise by the elected official/department head; or

b. Intermittent or reduced schedule leave is medically required.

This leave may begin before the birth of the child, if medically necessary.

(g) Intermittent and reduced leave schedule. Leave may be taken on an intermittent or reduced leave schedule when medically necessary. Intermittent leave is leave taken in separate periods of time due to a single illness or injury rather than for one continuous period of time. Reduced schedule leave means the employee works fewer than the normally scheduled hours during the week. In order to accommodate the employee's need to take intermittent leave or be placed on a reduced leave schedule, the following shall apply:

(1) The employee may be temporarily transferred to another position to better accommodate the arrangement;

(2) The employee shall make every reasonable effort to schedule medical care outside of normal business hours, or with consideration to the needs of the department; and

(3) The county is only required to grant this arrangement for FMLA after the birth or placement of a child for adoption or foster care if the elected official/department head approves or when medically necessary for recovery from or treatment of a serious health condition or chronic health condition of either the employee or an eligible family member, or to care for a covered service member with a serious injury or illness or due to a qualifying exigency (e.g. short-notice deployment, military events and related activities such as attendance at official ceremonies and programs sponsored by the military, family support or informational briefings, childcare and school activities, to make financial or legal arrangements, counseling, or post-deployment activities).

(4) An employee may not be required to take more leave than necessary to address the circumstance that precipitated the need for the leave.

(5) Employees may be required to provide doctor's statements to support intermittent leave absences pursuant to a uniformly applied departmental attendance policy. For example, if a department uniformly requires employees who are absent for three consecutive days to provide a doctor's statement upon return to work, then employees who have been absent three consecutive days on intermittent family and medical leave are held to the same standard.

(h) Combined leave limits. If two employees who are legal spouses wish to take leave to care for the same individual:

(1) There is a combined leave limit of 12 weeks to care for a parent or a child due to birth, adoption or foster care placement;

(2) There is a combined leave of 26 weeks in a single 12-month period to care for a covered military service member; and

(3) There is no combined leave limit to care for an ill child or for the employee's own illness. In these circumstances, each county employee is entitled to 12 weeks leave during the defined 12-month period.

(Ord. No. 2000-485, §§ 5.04—5.11, 3-7-2000; Ord. No. 2002-1977, 10-29-2002; Ord. No. 2009-0883, 5-12-2009)