A leave of absence is an absence from work for a period of at least 5 consecutive days and must be requested for a specific reason. A regular full-time employee or regular part-time employee with 6 months of service is eligible to request such a leave. An employee must exhaust his/her PEP time before being granted a leave without pay, except that the employee may request to retain a PEP balance equal to twice his/her weekly work schedule.

Every employee who has been employed by EMMC for at least 12 months may be entitled to up to 12 weeks of Family and Medical Leave (FMLA) per year.  Family and Medical Leave are granted to an eligible employee for the following reasons: serious illness of the employee; to care for a parent, spouse or child with a serious illness; to care for a newborn or newly adopted child. FMLA users must use their PEP time until it is exhausted (an employee may request to retain a PEP balance equal to twice his/her weekly work schedule), and then the remainder of such leave is unpaid. An employee returning from such a leave within 12 weeks will be reinstated to the same or equivalent position with at least the same pay rate and seniority as she/he had at the onset of the leave.