Section 6 - IMRF

Member Accounts / Past Service / Employer Resolutions / SECTION 6
Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund
a. Family Medical Leave Act
The Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) requires certain public employers to give eligible employees
time off to care for:
1. Newborn or newly adopted children
2. Seriously ill family members
3. The employee’s own illness
4. A relative injured on active military duty, or
5. A qualifying emergency related to a family member’s call-up to active military duty.
Eligible employees are entitled to a total of 12 weeks (26 weeks for relatives injured on active military
duty) of FMLA leave each year. This federal law does not require that an employee on FMLA leave be
paid, but the employee’s health insurance benefits must continue. The employee also is entitled to
return to his or her former position with no loss of seniority or status.
b. FMLA eligibility
The general provisions of the FMLA apply to all public sector employers. However, not all public
sector employees are eligible for FMLA leave. An employee is eligible for FMLA leave if he or she:
1. Has worked for the employer for at least 12 months (the 12 months need not be consecutive) and
2. Has worked at least 1,250 hours in the preceding 12 months.
The employer is not required to grant FMLA leave to an employee if the employer has fewer than 50
employees within 75 miles of that employee’s work site. This means that an IMRF employer with
fewer than 50 employees is not mandated by this law to grant FMLA leave. (The 50 employees include
everyone who works for the employer, regardless of the number of hours the employees work or
whether they participate in IMRF.)
Employers are not required to grant a Benefit Protection Leave, with the exception of Leaves requested
by employees on FMLA in certain circumstances. Employers should consult their legal counsel before
denying a BPL requested by a member on FMLA.
c. Effect of the Family Medical Leave Act on IMRF Benefit Protection Leave
An IMRF Benefit Protection Leave usually is granted at the discretion of the employer. However, if a
member on FMLA leave requests an IMRF Leave, FMLA regulations require the employer to grant
the IMRF Leave, if the employer ever granted an IMRF Leave to any member in the past.
However, if an employer has never granted an IMRF Benefit Protection Leave and a member on
FMLA leave requests one, the employer is not required to grant the leave under this legislation.
An IMRF Benefit Protection Leave remains limited to 12 months of service credit over the member’s
entire IMRF career.
d. Effect of FMLA on IMRF death and disability benefits
IMRF members on FMLA leave will remain eligible for IMRF disability and death benefits if they
were eligible for those benefits when the leave began. FMLA leave will not interrupt IMRF disability
and death benefit protection.
The usual rules require an IMRF member to have 12 months of continuous service credit in order to be
eligible for IMRF disability benefits. This rule will not apply if a member’s gap in IMRF service is due
to an FMLA leave.
e. Effect of FMLA on IMRF retirement benefits
IMRF members on FMLA leave will not earn pension service credit for the month(s) in which they are
not paid. If a member on FMLA leave wishes to receive IMRF pension service credit, the member
must apply for an IMRF Benefit Protection Leave and pay the member contributions and any
Page 252 January 2014