FMLA expanded for military families, other regulations proposed
President Bush has signed into law legislation that expands Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) coverage for family members of employees called for military service.
The expansion, included in a broader Department of Defense spending measure, requires employers to offer up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave to employees when a spouse, child or parent is on active duty or is called up for active duty. Leave could be for any “exigency” as defined by regulations to be drafted by the Labor Department. Additionally, the new law allows employees who are the spouses, children, parents or next of kin of a servicemember to take up to 26 weeks of leave under the FMLA to care for the servicemember who incurred an injury during military service when that injury results in the servicemember being unable to perform his or her duties. The expansion is the first for the 1993 law, which requires employers to allow employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave after the birth or adoption of a child, to care for a sick child, parent or spouse or when an employee has a serious illness.
Source: Business Insurance, 1/29/08, by Jerry Geisel
[Editor’s Note: The new provisions are effective immediately. The text of the FMLA, with the changes in bold italics, is below, along with the rest of the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) resource page on the FMLA. The New York Times and the Associated Press (AP) report at the next links that DOL has submitted proposed regulations to the White House that would define a "qualifying exigency" under the new provision and also would address other employer concerns about FMLA by (1) requiring employees to give employers notice before talking leave, with exceptions for extenuating circumstances, and (2) allowing employers to require an employee to provide an annual recertification from a doctor that the employee has a “serious health condition.” DOL declined, however, to narrow the definition of a serious health condition, as some employer groups had hoped. The AP reports that the proposed regulations could be published in the Federal Register as early as February and that DOL hopes to see them finalized before the end of the year.]
FMLA text as amended
DOL FMLA page
New York Times, 1/25/08, By Steven Greenhouse
Laconia (NH) Citizen, 1/29/08, By Jesse P. Holland (AP)