Florida Civil Air Patrol Leave Law (Fla. Stat. §252.55)

NOTE: This leave will not appear on claims if your organization has chosen not to administer it.

Covered Employers: Employers with 15 or more employees

Employee Eligibility: Civil Air Patrol leave is available to an employee who is a Civil Air Patrol member. A "Civil Air Patrol member" is a senior member of the Florida Wing of the Civil Air Patrol with at least an emergency services qualification. To be eligible for leave, the employee must have been employed by the employer for 90 days immediately prior to the commencement of the leave. "Employee" includes an independent contractor.

Entitlement: 15 days in a 12 month period for an employee who is a Civil Air Patrol member for the purpose of participating in a Civil Air Patrol training or mission.

Employer Notice: Not Specified

Employee Notice: Employee shall provide as much notice as possible before taking Civil Air Patrol leave. Upon the conclusion of Civil Air Patrol leave, the employee must promptly notify the employer of their intent to return to work.

Obligation to Provide Certifications or Documents Supporting Need for Leave: An employer may require certification from the proper Civil Air Patrol authority to verify the eligibility of the employee for the leave requested or taken.

Paid?: Nothing within the act prevents an employer from offering paid leave.

Benefits: An employer may permit, but cannot require, an employee to exhaust all accrued vacation leave, personal leave, compensatory leave, sick leave, disability leave, and any other leave that may be available to the employee in order to take Civil Air Patrol leave. All benefits remain intact. Also, the employee maintains the seniority that they had attained at the time the leave began, and any other rights and benefits to which the employee is entitled as a result of the seniority and any additional seniority that the member would have earned if they had remained continuously employed, and any other rights and benefits to which the employee would be entitled as a result of their seniority.

Reinstatement: An employer shall reinstate the employee to their original position. An employee returning from Civil Air Patrol leave may not be discharged from employment for a period of one year after the leave, except for cause. An employer is not required to reinstate an employee at the end of Civil Air Patrol leave if: the employer's circumstances have so changed as to make employment impossible or unreasonable; employment would impose an undue hardship on the employer; the employment from which the member takes such leave is for a brief, nonrecurring period and there is no reasonable expectation that such employment will continue indefinitely or for a significant period; or the employer had legally sufficient cause to terminate the employee at the time the employee took leave.

Other Important Definitions/Requirements: An employer is not required to grant Civil Air Patrol leave to an employee who is required to respond to either the same or other simultaneous emergency operational mission as a first responder or disaster service worker for a local, state, or federal agency. (Volunteer Firefighter leave or Emergency Responder leave).

Relationship with Other Leave: N/A

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