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‘‘(d) Qualifying exigency. Leave due to a qualifying 
exigency may be taken on an intermittent or reduced leave 
schedule basis. 
‘‘§ 825.203 Scheduling of intermittent or reduced 
schedule leave 
‘‘Eligible employees may take FMLA leave on an 
intermittent or reduced schedule basis when medically nec-
essary due to the serious health condition of a covered 
family member or the employee or the serious injury or 
illness of a covered servicemember. See 825.202. Eligible 
employees may also take FMLA leave on an intermittent 
or reduced schedule basis when necessary because of a 
qualifying exigency. If an employee needs leave intermit-
tently or on a reduced leave schedule for planned medical 
treatment, then the employee must make a reasonable ef-
fort to schedule the treatment so as not to disrupt unduly 
the employing office’s operations. 
‘‘§ 825.204 Transfer of an employee to an alternative 
position during intermittent leave or re-
duced schedule leave 
‘‘(a) Transfer or reassignment. If an employee needs 
intermittent leave or leave on a reduced leave schedule 
that is foreseeable based on planned medical treatment for 
the employee, a family member, or a covered servicemem-
ber, including during a period of recovery from one’s own 
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serious health condition, a serious health condition of a 
spouse, parent, son, or daughter, or a serious injury or 
illness of a covered servicemember, or if the employing of-
fice agrees to permit intermittent or reduced schedule 
leave for the birth of a child or for placement of a child 
for adoption or foster care, the employing office may re-
quire the employee to transfer temporarily, during the pe-
riod the intermittent or reduced leave schedule is required, 
to an available alternative position for which the employee 
is qualified and which better accommodates recurring peri-
ods of leave than does the employee’s regular position. See 
825.601 for special rules applicable to instructional em-
ployees of schools. 
‘‘(b) Compliance. Transfer to an alternative position 
may require compliance with any applicable collective bar-
gaining agreement and Federal law (such as the Ameri-
cans with Disabilities Act, as made applicable by the 
CAA). Transfer to an alternative position may include al-
tering an existing job to better accommodate the employ-
ee’s need for intermittent or reduced scheduled leave. 
‘‘(c) Equivalent pay and benefits. The alternative po-
sition must have equivalent pay and benefits. An alter-
native position for these purposes does not have to have 
equivalent duties. The employing office may increase the 
pay and benefits of an existing alternative position, so as 
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•HRES 1516 IH 
to make them equivalent to the pay and benefits of the 
employee’s regular job. The employing office may also 
transfer the employee to a part-time job with the same 
hourly rate of pay and benefits, provided the employee is 
not required to take more leave than is medically nec-
essary. For example, an employee desiring to take leave 
in increments of four hours per day could be transferred 
to a half-time job, or could remain in the employee’s same 
job on a part-time schedule, paying the same hourly rate 
as the employee’s previous job and enjoying the same ben-
efits. The employing office may not eliminate benefits 
which otherwise would not be provided to part-time em-
ployees; however, an employing office may proportionately 
reduce benefits such as vacation leave where an employing 
office’s normal practice is to base such benefits on the 
number of hours worked. 
‘‘(d) Employing office limitations. An employing of-
fice may not transfer the employee to an alternative posi-
tion in order to discourage the employee from taking leave 
or otherwise work a hardship on the employee. For exam-
ple, a white collar employee may not be assigned to per-
form laborer’s work; an employee working the day shift 
may not be reassigned to the graveyard shift; an employee 
working in the headquarters facility may not be reassigned 
to a branch a significant distance away from the employ-
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•HRES 1516 IH 
ee’s normal job location. Any such attempt on the part 
of the employing office to make such a transfer will be 
held to be contrary to the prohibited acts provisions of 
the FMLA, as made applicable by the CAA. 
‘‘(e) Reinstatement of employee. When an employee 
who is taking leave intermittently or on a reduced leave 
schedule and has been transferred to an alternative posi-
tion no longer needs to continue on leave and is able to 
return to full-time work, the employee must be placed in 
the same or equivalent job as the job he or she left when 
the leave commenced. An employee may not be required 
to take more leave than necessary to address the cir-
cumstance that precipitated the need for leave. 
‘‘§ 825.205 Increments of fmla leave for intermittent 
or reduced schedule leave 
‘‘(a) Minimum increment. (1) When an employee 
takes FMLA leave on an intermittent or reduced leave 
schedule basis, the employing office must account for the 
leave using an increment no greater than the shortest pe-
riod of time that the employing office uses to account for 
use of other forms of leave provided that it is not greater 
than one hour and provided further that an employee’s 
FMLA leave entitlement may not be reduced by more than 
the amount of leave actually taken. An employing office 
may not require an employee to take more leave than is 
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•HRES 1516 IH 
necessary to address the circumstances that precipitated 
the need for the leave, provided that the leave is counted 
using the shortest increment of leave used to account for 
any other type of leave. See also 825.205(a)(2) for the 
physical impossibility exception, and 825.600 and 825.601 
for special rules applicable to employees of schools. If an 
employing office uses different increments to account for 
different types of leave, the employing office must account 
for FMLA leave in the smallest increment used to account 
for any other type of leave. For example, if an employing 
office accounts for the use of annual leave in increments 
of one hour and the use of sick leave in increments of 
one-half hour, then FMLA leave use must be accounted 
for using increments no larger than one-half hour. If an 
employing office accounts for use of leave in varying incre-
ments at different times of the day or shift, the employing 
office may also account for FMLA leave in varying incre-
ments, provided that the increment used for FMLA leave 
is no greater than the smallest increment used for any 
other type of leave during the period in which the FMLA 
leave is taken. If an employing office accounts for other 
forms of leave use in increments greater than one hour, 
the employing office must account for FMLA leave use 
in increments no greater than one hour. An employing of-
fice may account for FMLA leave in shorter increments 
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than used for other forms of leave. For example, an em-
ploying office that accounts for other forms of leave in 
one hour increments may account for FMLA leave in a 
shorter increment when the employee arrives at work sev-
eral minutes late, and the employing office wants the em-
ployee to begin work immediately. Such accounting for 
FMLA leave will not alter the increment considered to be 
the shortest period used to account for other forms of 
leave or the use of FMLA leave in other circumstances. 
In all cases, employees may not be charged FMLA leave 
for periods during which they are working. 
‘‘(2) Where it is physically impossible for an 
employee using intermittent leave or working a re-
duced leave schedule to commence or end work mid- 
way through a shift, such as where a flight attend-
ant or a railroad conductor is scheduled to work 
aboard an airplane or train, or a laboratory em-
ployee is unable to enter or leave a sealed ‘clean 
room’ during a certain period of time and no equiva-
lent position is available, the entire period that the 
employee is forced to be absent is designated as 
FMLA leave and counts against the employee’s 
FMLA entitlement. The period of the physical im-
possibility is limited to the period during which the 
employing office is unable to permit the employee to 
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