• Employees may request FMLA leave for several reasons.

Covered employers are required to provide eligible employees job-protected, unpaid FMLA leave for qualifying reasons. Not every reason an employee needs time off from work will qualify for FMLA protections. There are basically six reasons that qualify for leave under the FMLA:

• Birth of a child (12 weeks),
• Placement with an employee of a child for adoption or foster care (12 weeks),
• An employee’s serious health condition (12 weeks),
• The serious health condition of an employee’s family member (12 weeks),
• To handle any qualifying exigency caused by a family member’s covered active military duty (12 weeks), or
• To care for a family member with a serious injury or illness obtained or aggravated in the line of active military duty (26 weeks).