Family And Medical Leave Act

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) became public law on February 5, 1993. Its purpose is to grant family and temporary medical leave under certain circumstances that will allow the employee to balance the demands of their job with the needs of their families. Some examples of eligible leave are: for the birth or adoption of a child, to care for an (eligible) family member that has a serious health condition or because the employee themselves have a serious health condition and is unable to work for an extended period of time. Further, the FMLA was enacted in order to minimize employment

You get the phone call in the middle of the night. Your son or daughter has been in a serious accident and is hospitalized in critical condition. After several day’s they come home from the hospital with several broken bones and require your around the clock attention for the next eight to twelve weeks. You just got over a serious medical condition yourself which you acquired while on vacation and do not have any vacation time or sick time to take off. Do you have to quit your job? Can your employer terminate you for taking time off to be with your child? What options do you have? What can your employer do for you? Well, the answer lies in the Family and Medical Leave Act.

The Family and Medical Leave Act sets regulations for job-protected leave related to family and medical reasons. FMLA applies to organizations with 50 or more employees working within 75 miles of the employee’s worksite (“Employment Laws,” n.d., para. 6). Employees who have been with their current employer for 12 months and who have worked 1250 hours of service in the previous 12 months are eligible for 12 weeks of unpaid leave through FMLA (“Eligibility Requirements,” Revised 2013). FMLA covers the following leave reasons:

What is Family and Medical leave Act (FMLA)? The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) that was passed in 1993, is a national policy that grants workers up to twelve weeks of unpaid leave in four situations. These four situations are for pregnancy; to care for an infant, such as newborns, newly-placed foster children, and adoptions; to care for a relative with a serious health condition; or to allow an employee to recover and recuperate from a personal serious health condition. This paper will be discussing the impact of FMLA on employers and the protections provided by this law. (Vikesland, 2009)

The Family Medical Leave Act was passed in 1993 and updated in 2008 and 2009. The law requires employers with 50 or more employees to allow up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave. The provision of the law would allow employees who have worked for one year and have worked at least 1,250 hours to use the unpaid leave for family or medical reasons (DeCenzo 267). It is important to note that the employee does not have to work for one year of continuous service, any combination of weeks worked that equal to 52 weeks makes and employee eligible for FMLA leave. If the employee has a break of seven years or longer, that time does not have to be counted towards the 52 weeks (United States Dept of Labor, 2017). To count the

Before 1993, there was no family and medical leave legislation in the United States. It was the only major industrialized country without one; and at that time, employers had the legal right to fire employees who needed to take time off to look after seriously ill family members. They could even legally fire women that required time off for pregnancy and childbirth if they were also denying time off for employees who were not pregnant when they were unable to work (Albiston, p. vii).

     The Family and Medical Leave Act was enacted by Congress on February 5, 1993, and it is public law 103-3. This law allows for a person to leave work in certain situations without losing his/her job. An eligible employees must have worked for the employer for at least 12 months and at least completed 1250 hours of service. An employee is able to leave work for up to 12 weeks for any of the following reasons: the employee expects a baby in his/her immediate family, the employee expects an adopted child in his/her immediate family, the employee has to take care of an ill family member which includes spouse, parent or his/her own children, and/or the employee has a serious medical

Paid family leave is highly supported amongst many employed parents in the United States, and is

     Over the years, FMLA has evolved into a one of the most discussed and complex laws in the United States. Since 1993, over 35 million eligible workers have

An article online from Time Inc. Network lists some U.S. companies that do offer paid parental leave. Most of these companies use the leave to attract talented employees and most are in the information and/or technology industry. The list include:

The Family and Medical Aid Act (FLMA), of 1993, provides for 12 weeks of unpaid, job protected leave for certain specified events (8). Whilst one could refer to this as maternity or paternity leave if taken because of a pregnancy, this would not be strictly true. Where maternity and paternity leave are offered around the

So, going back to the question on whether or not the United States will ever offer parental leaves for all parents? Based on readings and sources that I gathered, I think it will take a long time for all companies located in each 50 states of the United States finally agree upon a 100% parental leave with pay. As of today, US is the only developed country that doesn’t offer maternity leave. How can that

In the past many politicians, majority on the Democratic side, have voiced their opinion about how the U.S. should mandate paid leave at a federal level, but all have fallen short of putting this law in place. The “Family Medical Leave Act” (FMLA) is a law that assures up to 12 weeks off of work for new mother, but only guarantees time off work, not pay. According to statics published by the “OECD” the average about of paid-leave that is granted to new mothers around the world is 14-15 weeks. Anyone who relies on an income weekly or bi-weekly to provide for their household, will testify, that going multiple weeks without an income is unacceptable and pretty much

family/medical leave policies exist at both the federal and state levels. For the purpose of this exploration, the emphasis is on the federal leave programs formally known as the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) of 1979, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 and the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of 1993. At a high level, the PDA mandates that a pregnant female employee may not be discriminated against due to her pregnant condition and her employment may not be terminated due to pregnancy, hence job protection must be in place. Similary, the ADA also forbids discrimination against disabled people in employment, transportation, public accommodation, communications, and governmental activities (U.S. Department of Labor DOL). Additionally, the FMLA mandates that employers of fifty or more employees must secure their employees’ postion, or equivalent position, for up to twelve weeks a year while their employee is out on FMLA leave. Furthermore, employers must continue paying their employees’ health insurance premiums during the employee’s period of leave. Family and medical leave covers care for a newborn or newly adopted child, caring for a child, spouse, or parent who has a serious health condition, or employee’s recovering from their own serious health condition. Employees are eligible for FMLA if they have worked for their employer for a year, and for 1,250 hours during the immediately preceding year (Lenhoff and Bell 2). Comparatively, it is necessary to acknowledge that some (but not all) employees have access to leave programs through union contracts, employer policies, or state legislation regarding leave policy, including but not limited to, sick leave, parental leave, and personal leave. The FMLA is an unpaid leave, though in states which offer Temporary Disability Insurance (TDI) programs, the employee may file for state disability if

Despite the advantages of paid parental leave, the United States trails behind other developed countries in guaranteeing these options. In fact, America is currently “one of the only two nations (the other being Papua New Guinea) that do not guarantee paid maternity leave to new mothers” (Baum II and Ruhm 333). Last year, according to the Pew Research Center, only fourteen percent of workers had access to paid family leave (Desilver). Instead of choosing to extend paid leave for their employees, many American businesses opt to offer unpaid family leave that is available to almost ninety