School Conference and Activities Leave Employers with one or more employees must grant leave of up to 16 hours during any twelvemonth period to enable a parent to attend a child’s or foster child’s school conferences or school-related activities and day care or kindergarten activities if those conferences or activities cannot be scheduled during nonwork hours. Employees are eligible for school leave if they work on at least a half-time basis. Employees need not be paid for school leave, but they may use accrued paid vacation leave or other appropriate leave for this purpose. Where the need for school leave is foreseeable, the employee must give the employer reasonable prior notice and must make a reasonable effort to schedule the leave so as not to unduly disrupt operations. Bone Marrow Donations Employers with 20 or more employees must grant paid leaves of absence of up to 40 work hours to an employee who seeks to undergo a medical procedure to donate bone marrow. The employer may not retaliate against the employee for requesting or obtaining the leave. The employer may require a doctor’s statement verifying the purpose and length of the leave. If there is a medical determination that the employee does not qualify as a bone marrow donor, paid leave granted prior to the medical determination is not forfeited. There is no requirement that the employee be employed by the employer for a certain period of time before becoming eligible for the leave. Military Leave Employers must allow regular employees who are members of the Military Reserve or National Guard or Civil Air Patrol unpaid time off for military duty and training. The employee generally must be reinstated to a position of like seniority, status and pay following discharge or release from active duty. The federal Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) (38 U.S.C. 43) provides reemployment protection to veterans and employees who perform military service in the active military, the National Guard or Reserves. That law applies to federal, state and local governments and all civilian employers regardless of size. If an employee leaves employment for voluntary or involuntary military service that employee upon his return from active duty is entitled to return to the employee’s job, with accrued seniority, provided the employee meets the act’s five eligibility criteria: (1) the employee must have held a civilian job with the employer; (2) the employee must have informed the employer that the employee was leaving for service in the uniformed services; (3) the period of service must not exceed five years; (4) the employee must have been released from the service under honorable conditions; (5) the employee must have reported to his civilian employer in a timely manner or submitted a timely application for reemployment. The FMLA provides two forms of leave. (1) Exigency leave is available to service members of any branch of the Armed Services deployed to a foreign country. (2) Family caregiver leave applies to family members of veterans for up to five years after the veteran leaves service. Family leave to care for a covered service member is available up to five years after the veteran leaves the service if the veteran develops an injury or illness that was incurred or aggravated while on active duty. The five year window for veterans is intended to help veterans who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder and other conditions that are not necessarily evident at the time the service member leaves active duty.
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