Essay on 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

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:

website. This link will take to the user to a new page where the user will then click a link titled “Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).”

Furthermore, the FMLA excludes employees in most workplaces having fewer than 50 employees and excludes employees who do not have sufficient tenure (Armenia, Gerstel, Wing, 2014). According to surveys, most worksites are not covered by the FMLA because they're too small even though more than half of employees are eligible for the protections of the FMLA (Kelly, 2010). Only 1 in 6 worksites reports that it is covered by FMLA with about 30 % of worksites reporting that they are unsure if they are covered (Kelly, 2010). These uncovered and unsure worksites tend to be small and covered worksites tend to be larger (Hayes et. al, 2012). Then, only 59 % of American workers and less than 20 % of all new mothers are eligible for the FMLA (Sholar,

What does FMLA abuse look like from the employers perspective? One study indicates there are five basic ways that employees are tempted to, and do abuse their FMLA leaves. Employees that are presumably on leave to take care of their own personal serious heath conditions are doing some or all of the following: working a second job, running errands/going shopping, engaging in recreational activities, taking short get-away trips, engaging in manual labor activities when limitations have been claimed. When FMLA is tied to the care of a family member with a serious illness or injury, the employee has opted not to take care of the family member during a certified period.

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).

B: Noooo, it does not work that way. Employees are eligible for leave if they have worked for their employer at least 12 months, or at least 1,250 hours over the past 12 months, and work at a location where the company employs 50 or more employees within 75 miles of the main office.

The Family and Medical Act went into effect on February 5, 1993, FMLA is designed to help employees balance their work and family responsibilities by allowing them to take legal unpaid leave for family and medical reasons that include: to care for a newborn or a newly adopted or fostered child, to care for a spouse, son, daughter or parent who has a serious health condition. The serious health conditions make the employee unable to perform the essential functions of his or her job. It is also applied for any qualifying exigency arising out of the fact that a spouse, son, daughter, or parent is a military member on active duty or called to covered active duty status. For any employee to get benefit from this act, he should spend at least 12 months working for the employer and has at least 1,250 hours during those12 months. An employee has the right to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave during a 12-month period. An

In all instances of the FMLA, your job is protected, there are no federal guidelines to dictate your employer is responsible for covering lost wages during this period of leave. Your employer is only responsible for retuning you to your previous or similar position at the same rate of pay that you were receiving when you started your leave.

"In reality, the impact of FMLA abuse extends well beyond the workplace because FMLA costs are passed on to consumers." (Profesional Exchange Service Corporation, 2005) Even though the time off is unpaid to the employee, it is very disruptive to certain types of business such as call centers who need to schedule employees to cover busy call times with in their business. By having employees abusing this policy, it becomes harder and harder to staff some businesses. It is not only the employer that suffers; it is also the employees that are left to work when there peers off of work.

FMLA affects employers in many ways, such as monitoring leaves of absence, coordinating benefits for employees, record keeping and return-to-work conditions. FMLA affects employers in terms of ensuring compensation, and benefits specialists are well versed in the application of FMLA regulations to individual employee circumstances. Employers are affected also by FMLA but not replacing the employee or giving the employee an alternative position with the strong intentions of discouraging them from taking the leave. If the employer fails to comply, there are strict consequences and possible lawsuits. Another discouragement that affected for the employers were that they had to continue providing group health insurance to the employee while on leave.

Family Medical Leave Act provides employees with up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave per year, dependent on time of service. It also protects an employees’ job and maintains health benefits during their time off. FMLA is to help employees balance family and work responsibilities by taking leave for certain family and medical reasons that is unpaid. According to regulations, employers must provide unpaid leave for a birth and/or care of a newborn child, adoption or foster care of a child, care of an

Employers must provide eligible employees with twelve weeks of unpaid leave within a one-year time period. That is, the one-year period officially starts whenever the employee begins using their FMLA benefits. Some states allow companies to require employees on FMLA to first use up any accrued vacation, sick and paid leave. The employer is not required to provide the same job when the covered employee returns, but they are required to provide a similar job with the same pay grade.

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) grants eligible employees of covered employers the right to take unpaid, job-protected leave for specified family and medical reasons (“Family and Medical Leave Act,” 2017). FMLA provides the employees 12 weeks of unpaid leave in a 12-month period.

The Family Medical Leave Act, FMLA, of 1993 was created to help both men and women juggle between the demands at work and the ones at home. The first law of its kind, FMLA, protects eligible workers from losing their jobs when extended time off is needed to care for a new baby, adopted or placed; a critically ill family member, or for their own serious health condition.