§ 826.50 - Intermittent leave.

§ 826.50 Intermittent leave.

(a) General Rule. Subject to the conditions and applicable limits, an Employee may take Paid Sick Leave or Expanded Family and Medical Leave intermittently (i.e., in separate periods of time, rather than one continuous period) only if the Employer and Employee agree. The Employer and Employee may memorialize in writing any agreement under this section, but a clear and mutual understanding between the parties is sufficient.

(b) Reporting to Worksite. The ability of an Employee to take Paid Sick Leave or Expanded Family and Medical Leave intermittently while reporting to an Employer's worksite depends upon the reason for the leave.

(1) If the Employer and Employee agree, an Employee may take up to the entire portion of Paid Sick Leave or Expanded Family and Medical Leave intermittently to care for the Employee's Son or Daughter whose School or Place of Care is closed, or Child Care Provider is unavailable, because of reasons related to COVID-19. Under such circumstances, intermittent Paid Sick Leave or paid Expanded Family and Medical Leave may be taken in any increment of time agreed to by the Employer and Employee.

(2) An Employee may not take Paid Sick Leave intermittently if the leave is taken for any of the reasons specified in § 826.20(a)(1)(i) through (iv) and (vi). Once the Employee begins taking Paid Sick Leave for one or more of such reasons, the Employee must use the permitted days of leave consecutively until the Employee no longer has a qualifying reason to take Paid Sick Leave.

(c) Teleworking. If an Employer directs or allows an Employee to Telework, or the Employee normally works from home, the Employer and Employee may agree that the Employee may take Paid Sick Leave for any qualifying reason or Expanded Family and Medical Leave intermittently, and in any agreed increment of time (but only when the Employee is unavailable to Telework because of a COVID-19 related reason).

(d) Calculation of leave. If an Employee takes Paid Sick Leave or Expanded Family and Medical Leave intermittently as the Employee and Employer have agreed, only the amount of leave actually taken may be counted toward the Employee's leave entitlements. For example, an Employee who normally works forty hours in a workweek and only takes three hours of leave each work day (for a weekly total of fifteen hours) has only taken fifteen hours of the Employee's Paid Sick Leave or 37.5% of a workweek of the Employee's Expanded Family and Medical Leave entitlement.

[85 FR 19347, Apr. 6, 2020, as amended at 85 FR 20157, Apr. 10, 2020]