D.C. Mun. Regs. tit. 4, r. 4-1603
An eligible employee is an individual who works within the District, as described in subsection 1603.5, and has been employed by the same employer for one (1) year without a break in service except for regular holiday, sick, or personal leave granted by the employer and has worked at least one thousand (1,000) hours during the twelve (12)-month period immediately preceding the request for family or medical leave. Hours paid for holiday, sick, and vacation time consistent with the employer's regular policies shall be included in the calculation of the one thousand (1,000) hour threshold.
The one (1) year of employment without a break in service need not be immediately preceding the DCFMLA request, but if the break in service between the request for FMLA leave and the last date of service is greater than seven (7) years, the time need not be included in determining eligibility.
Except as provided in § 1603.1, whether an employee has worked the minimum one thousand (1,000) hours of service shall be determined according to the principles established under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) for determining compensable hours of work. (See29 CFR part 785.)
The primary factor in determining whether the employee has worked the one thousand (1,000) hours shall be the number of hours an employee has worked for the employer within the meaning of the FLSA. The determination is not limited by methods of recordkeeping, or by compensation agreements that do not accurately reflect all of the hours an employee has worked for or been in service to the employer. Any accurate accounting of actual hours worked under FLSA principles may be used.
An employee is an individual who has been employed by the same employer for one (1) year without a break in service except for regular holiday, sick, or personal leave granted by the employer and has worked at least one thousand (1,000) hours during the twelve (12)-month period immediately preceding the request for family or medical leave. Hours paid for holiday, sick, and vacation time consistent with the employer's regular policies are included in the calculation of the one thousand (1, 000) hour threshold. An employee shall be deemed to work within the District if the person spends more than fifty percent (50%) of his or her work-time working for the employer in the District, if the person is employed by the employer in more than one (1) location, or the employee is based in the District of Columbia and regularly spends a substantial part of his or her time working for the employer in the District of Columbia and does not spend more than fifty percent (50%) of his or her work-time working for the employer in any particular state.
Pursuant to the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994, 38 U.S.C. §§ 4301et seq. (2006) (USERRA), an employee returning from fulfilling his or her National Guard or Reserve military obligation shall be credited with the hours of service that would have been performed but for the period of military service in determining whether the employee worked the one thousand (1,000) hours of service. Accordingly, a person reemployed following military service shall be credited with the hours that would have been worked for the employer added to any hours actually worked during the previous twelve (12)-month period in calculating whether the one thousand (1,000) hour requirement is met.
In order to determine the hours that would have been worked during the period of military service, the employee's pre-service work schedule may be used for calculations.
If an employer does not maintain an accurate record of hours worked by an employee, including for employees who are exempt from FLSA's requirement that a record be kept of their hours worked (for example, bona fide executive, administrative, and professional employees, as defined in 29 CFR part 541), the employer has the burden of showing that the employee has not worked the requisite hours.
The determination of whether an employee has worked for the employer for at least one thousand (1,000) hours in the past twelve (12) months and has been employed by the employer for a total of at least twelve (12) months must be made as of the date the FMLA leave is to start. An employee may be on "non-FMLA leave" at the time he or she meets the eligibility requirements, and in that event, any portion of the leave taken for an FMLA-qualifying reason after the employee meets the eligibility requirement would be "FMLA leave."
In determining DCFMLA eligibility for a District of Columbia government employee, the one thousand (1,000) hour requirement need not have been met with work in one (1) agency; rather, the employee may have worked at least one thousand (1,000) hours in total for the District government at large, in any agency or combination of agencies.
Whether twenty (20) employees are employed by an employer in the District shall be determined when the employee gives notice of the need for leave. Once an employee is determined eligible in response to a notice of the need for leave, the employee's eligibility shall not be affected by any subsequent change in the number of employees employed by that employer, even if the leave is taken on an intermittent or reduced leave schedule, if the leave is taken based on the same notice of the need for leave. An employer may not end employee leave that has already started if its number of employees drops below twenty (20).
If an employer undergoes a business change, such as a merger, acquisition, or name change, the employer's successor-in-interest shall be considered the same as the original employer for purposes of determining whether an employee has worked for the employer for the requisite number of months and hours to be eligible for DCFMLA leave.
D.C. Mun. Regs. tit. 4, r. 4-1603