Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, DOL NEWS—WHD issues opinion letter on FMLA leave calculations involving voluntary hours, fixed ‘Pitman Schedules,’ and mandatory overtime, (Oct 2, 2025)

By Brandi O. Brown, J.D.

The requestor sought the appropriate method for calculating intermittent or reduced schedule FMLA leave hours when employees work fixed schedules that include mandatory overtime hours and may volunteer for additional hours outside of the published weekly schedule.

This week, the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division announced publication of several opinion letters offering official written interpretations from the division. In June, Deputy Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling announced the launch of the department’s new and improved opinion letter program. These letters were the first posted by WHD since early May. The other letters were covered in yesterday’s Labor and Employment Law Daily publication.

FMLA leave interpretation. In FMLA2025-02-A, the WHD provided its interpretation of the law as it related to the appropriate method for calculating intermittent or reduced schedule FMLA leave hours when employees work fixed, “Pitman” schedules, requiring 12-hour shifts over a two-week cycle that include mandatory overtime hours, but may also volunteer for additional hours outside of the published weekly schedule.

In this case, the employer calculates the 12-workweek FMLA leave entitlement as equivalent to 504 hours, the requestor explained, basing this on the number of hours employees are required to work under the employer’s published schedule, which mandates 84 hours of work every two weeks.

Employer’s calculations deemed correct. WHD responded that, in its opinion, this conversion is in accordance with the FMLA’s requirements, as the calculation is consistent with what would be 12 normally scheduled workweeks for an employee working a mandatory 84 hours every 14 days. “In determining the appropriate amount of an employee’s FMLA leave entitlement,” the letter explained, “an employer may convert the workweek to its hourly equivalent in a manner that equitably reflects the employee’s total normally scheduled hours.” It noted that the “calculation properly appears to take into account normally scheduled hours while disregarding voluntary additional hours that an employee could potentially work.”

Moreover, the WHD offered its opinion that “when calculating an employee’s FMLA leave usage to be deducted from an employee’s FMLA leave entitlement,” it is “correct to count as FMLA leave any hours the employee would normally work but for the FMLA absence, which includes mandatory overtime hours.” This approach is consistent with regulations “providing that additional voluntary hours that an employee does not work due to an FMLA-qualifying reason are not deducted from the employee’s FMLA leave entitlement.”

The letter also provided an illustrative example involving a similar set of facts as presented and describing how that employee’s FMLA leave would be calculated.

News: AgencyNews EmployeeLeave