Family and Medical Leave
The provisions of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provide faculty members up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave during a 12-month rolling forward period for certain family and medical reasons. To be eligible, faculty members must have worked at the College for at least 12 months and for at least 1,250 hours during the previous 12 months. Leave is available for birth or care of a newborn, adoption or foster care placement of a child, the care of a spouse, son, daughter, or parent with a serious health condition, or in the event of a serious personal illness that prevents the employee from working.
Unpaid leave may be substituted by certain paid leave, in the event of personal illness. Health insurance coverage will be maintained under the same conditions as prior to the leave.
In most cases, Amherst College leave policies equal or exceed FMLA provisions and will be deemed to run concurrently with the leave available under FMLA. However, at no time will FMLA be used to limit already existing rights and protections provided under any other statutory provisions.
Additional details and requirements of FMLA are available in the Human Resources Office and under the Services section of the Handbook.