Family Medical Leave Act (Or Research Proposal: Should The FMLA Be Changed?

Some of the disadvantages that the employer faces are not being able to predict when employees will be taking FMLA leave, causing them to make last minute changes to work schedules and the understanding of what is considered to be a serious illness. A recent survey reported by Ioma, a leading business management organization, states that the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) found that 68% of organizations have experienced challenges in administering medical leave under the FMLA. These challenges include:

Employers are limited to what they are allowed to ask and employees are allotted time off before being required to provide medical documentation supporting their request for leave. These gaps in detail in the documentation of the Family Medical Leave Act are giving dishonest employees an opportunity to obtain time off without any due explanation. Sue Sumler from the Manufacturers' Alliance/MAPI explains the problems caused by a vague definition of serious health condition. "Because the definition of a 'Serious Health Condition' is vague, almost any¬one can find a physician to certify that they have a chronic condition that meets the definition. Many of this company's intermittent leaves are for migraine headaches. The physician certifies that migraines may occur at any time. Some employees approved for leave for migraine headaches miss four-five days a month and more. For some, it appears that FMLA has given them an extra 60 days off work."

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:

I would recommend Company X create a policy that documents FMLA procedures and clarifies what to expect while on leave (salary and benefits).

| In order for employee to be eligible, company must have a minimum of 50 employees working within a 75 mile radius of the plant.

The Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) was enacted to offer relief and protection to those workers

The FMLA or The Family and Medical Leave Act allows eligible employees who work for companies that the Act applies to take unpaid, job-protected leave for family and or medical reasons. As stated on US Department of Labor’s website (2015), a covered employer must have 50 or more employees in 20 or more work weeks in the current or preceding calendar year, including a joint employer or successor in interest to a covered employer. It may also be a public agency which includes local, state or Federal agencies, regardless of the number of employees that it employs. Eligible employees work for a covered

I was not sure which database to use for my search, so I selected the first one listed, Business Source Complete database. I searched for “FMLA.” Luckily,

The federal government passed the Family Medical Leave Act in 1993. The FMLA only applies to employers with 50 or more employees, except government agencies and schools. The employee must have worked for at least 12 months and worked at least 1250 hours within those last 12 months. Employees have up to 12 workweeks of unpaid leave each year with no threat of job loss. It also requires that employers covered by the law maintain the health benefits for eligible workers just as if they were working. Family Medical Leave Act is important to employees for many reasons. The first reason is employees will not be worried about their job when they take off, since their job is secure under FMLA.

     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

Many believe that the success of a functioning community can be measured by the development of the youth, with the assumption that they would progress society as the future generation. Today’s children are tomorrow’s working class and the main contributors of social progress. Thus, the developmental stages in a child’s life is pertinent to success of a community, and in these stages parental involvement is a necessary component, which is why Family Leave is a policy implemented worldwide. Policy regarding family leave refers to the leave granted to employees in order to care for their newborn child. All countries, with the exception of two, have gone a step further by requiring employers to partially or fully compensate employees during family

Employment, Family Leave, and Parents of Newborns or Seriously Ill Children describes Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and California’s Paid Family Leave Insurance (PFIL) both promote an individual to take time off for their family to care for illnesses or newborns. The article used a semi structured qualitative interview with 20 newborn parents and 20 parents of children with special needs from Los Angeles with equal ration of men and women from different families. The article found that many parents do not thoroughly understand their benefits and sometimes made decisions that are not well thought of and less beneficial because of their complexity. The article does note that families that are planning newborns were less stressed compared to

Paternity leave should be a right for all male workers for two weeks. Paternity leave is a period of absence from work granted to a father after or shortly before the birth of his child. Usually, pregnant women who are nearly due for delivery are able to take parental leave from their employment, what about men? Shouldn’t they have the ability to go on leave for the birth of their children? Paternity leave should be granted for male workers for many reasons. This essay will consider some of those reasons, such as if the partner is not well after the birth of the child, needs care and supervision or if she is going through tough pregnancy and needs her male partner to assist her delivering their child. It is also important for an infant-father bonding as much as an infant-mother bonding after the child is born. Also if a horrible circumstance occurs like mother passing away during her delivery, that would leave the father as the first and only carer.

Every single person should be aware of its rights and benefits as a worker in a company. A benefit that commonly women get is, “Maternity leave,” or “Family leave.” This an principally significant topic, since in some companies, and corporations this right is not truly respected, and some employees don’t know how to fight for their privileges.

Perhaps these survey results also coincide with the assertion by some researchers that nurturing and caretaking is not just an inborn characteristic but an acquired one. The result of this Citation survey points us to the strong possibility of re-defining gender roles. But gender redefining aside, in order for a parental leave law to promote the medical, societal, and economic benefits it entails, it needs to be practical for everybody to take.