Light Duty or Overtime

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Light Duty or Overtime

Reference Number: MTAS-1503
Reviewed Date: 09/04/2026

Light Duty and FMLA Leave
Time spent in a light-duty assignment does not count against an employee’s FMLA leave entitlement. An employee who accepts a light-duty position is working, rather than using FMLA leave.

A city may offer light duty to an employee who is unable to perform the employee’s regular position because of a medical condition or work-related injury. However, the city generally may not require an employee to accept a light-duty assignment in place of FMLA leave. An employee may decline a light-duty offer and continue to use available FMLA leave if the employee otherwise qualifies for FMLA leave.

An employee’s right to restoration to the same or an equivalent position is generally held in abeyance while the employee voluntarily performs light-duty work. The restoration right does not extend beyond the end of the city’s applicable 12-month FMLA leave period.

Light duty may implicate other laws or policies, including workers’ compensation, the ADA, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, collective-bargaining agreements, and city personnel policies. HR should evaluate those obligations separately. An employee may have rights under the ADA or PWFA even when the employee declines light duty or has exhausted FMLA leave.

Overtime and FMLA Leave
When an employee would normally be required to work overtime but cannot do so because of an FMLA-qualifying reason, the city may count the missed required overtime hours against the employee’s FMLA entitlement. The missed time is treated as intermittent or reduced-schedule FMLA leave.

For example, an employee’s normal workweek includes 40 regular hours and 8 mandatory overtime hours, for a total of 48 hours. If the employee’s serious health condition limits the employee to 40 hours that week, the city may count the 8 missed mandatory overtime hours as FMLA leave. The employee has used 8 hours of FMLA leave out of a 48-hour workweek, or one-sixth of a workweek of FMLA leave.

The city may not count missed voluntary overtime against the employee’s FMLA entitlement. If the employee had the option to work additional overtime but chose not to do so because of an FMLA-qualifying reason, those voluntary hours do not reduce the employee’s available FMLA leave.

The U.S. Department of Labor reaffirmed this approach in Opinion Letter FMLA2025-02-A. The DOL explained that an employee’s normal, actual workweek includes mandatory overtime hours that are part of the employee’s published or required schedule. Additional overtime that an employee may volunteer to work is not included when calculating FMLA entitlement or FMLA leave usage.

Cities should:

  • Clearly identify whether overtime is mandatory or voluntary.
  • Maintain accurate schedules and records showing required overtime assignments.
  • Count only actual missed mandatory hours against FMLA leave.
  • Use the employee’s normal, actual workweek—not merely a standard 40-hour week—when calculating FMLA leave for employees with regularly scheduled mandatory overtime.
  • Avoid reducing FMLA entitlement for voluntary overtime that an employee declines.
  • Coordinate light-duty decisions with workers’ compensation, ADA accommodation, PWFA accommodation, collective-bargaining, and city-policy requirements.

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