Each calendar year, employees who meet eligibility criteria are eligible for unpaid job-protected leave for qualifying serious health conditions for themselves or a family member.
Under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), University employees may be eligible for up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave during a calendar year.
Under the state Hawaiʻi Family Leave Law (HFLL), employees may be eligible for up to 4 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave during the calendar year.
If an employee qualifies for family leave under both HFLL and FMLA, the family leave will run concurrently. For example, if an employee qualifies for family leave to care for his/her spouse with a serious health condition, the family leave will run concurrently under both HFLL and FMLA for 4 weeks and an additional 8 weeks under FMLA – a maximum of 12 weeks of family leave.
Employees may substitute paid leave (i.e. sick, vacation, compensatory time) for FMLA and/or HFLL unpaid leave, depending on the qualifying reason.
For HFLL, the employee must maintain a minimum of least 15 days of accrued sick leave required under the State’s self-insured Temporary Disability Benefits Plan.
Eligibility Under the HFLL
- All types of employees are eligible.
- The employee must have worked for at least 6 consecutive months.
Eligibility Under the FMLA
- All types of employees are eligible.
- The employee must have worked for the State of Hawai’i for at least 12 months (need not be consecutive), and
- The employee must have worked at least 1,250 hours over the 12-month period immediately preceding the employee’s leave.
An employee may qualify for family and medical leave under state and/or federal law under the following circumstances:
| Qualifying Circumstances | State | Federal |
|---|---|---|
| Birth of Child/Care for Newborn | ✓ | ✓ |
| Care for Family Member with Serious Health Condition | ✓ | ✓ |
| Placement of Child with Employee for Adoption | ✓ | ✓ |
| Placement of Child with Employee for Foster Care | ✓ | |
| Employee’s Serious Health Condition (Employee is Unable to Work) | ✓ | |
| Military Family Leave (Qualifying Exigency Leave/Military Caregiver Leave) | ✓ |
Note: “Qualifying Exigency Leave” may be requested when the employee’s spouse, son, daughter, or parent is on or has been notified of an impending call to “covered active duty” in the Armed Forces.
| HFLL | FMLA | |
| Child | Biological, adopted, or foster son or daughter of an employee; a stepchild; a legal ward of an employee No limitation on age of child under the Hawaii law. | Biological, adopted, foster, step son or daughter; legal ward; or child of a person standing in loco parentis. Must be under 18 years of age, or an adult child incapable of self-care due to mental or physical disability. |
| Parent | Biological, foster, adoptive parent; a parent-in-law; a step parent; a legal guardian; a grandparent; or a grand parent-in-law | Biological parent or an individual who stood in loco parentis to an employee when the employee was a son or daughter; but not a parent-in-law |
| Family Member | Employee’s child, spouse, reciprocal beneficiary, parent, parent-in-law, legal guardian, sibling (biological, adopted, foster brother or sister, stepbrother or stepsister), grandchild, grandparent or grandparent-in-law | Employee’s spouse, child or parent |
| Serious Health Condition | A physical or mental condition that warrants the participation of the employee to provide care during the period of treatment or supervision by a health care provider, and:
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Illness, injury, impairment, or physical or mental condition involving incapacity or treatment connected with inpatient care in a hospital, hospice, or residential medical-care facility; or,continuing treatment by a health care provider involving:
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