The Family and Medical Leave Act was passed by the US Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division in the year 1993. The act, as quoted from the Department of Labor, “entitles eligible employees of covered employers to take unpaid, job-protected leave for specified family and medical reasons.” (WHD) As portrayed by this definition, an employee can only take this leave of absence for particular reasons outlined under the act, and both the employer as well as the employee have to meet certain criteria before the FMLA is actually pertinent to the given situation. Examining the specifications of this piece of legislation, the specific reasons given for an employee to take leave of absence via the FMLA include: the birth, adoption, or placement …show more content…
It was designed to enable employees to create a work/life balance that promoted both “stability and economic security” for US workers and their families. Prior to the passage of this act, employees commonly lost their jobs when they became seriously ill or whenever they needed to take a prolonged absence from work for any other multitude of family and health-related reasons. While the passage of the FMLA was celebrated across the country as a major victory for employee welfare, the act’s passage was also particularly seen as a major victory for enabling women to be successful in the workplace. Pre-FMLA, women routinely lost their jobs when they needed time off of work to have a child or requested an extended leave of absence from work to bond with their new baby; worse yet, this lack of job security even forced some women to endanger their own health by attempting to return to work too soon after childbirth- women across the country were haunted by the knowledge that the longer a leave was requested, the more likely it was that she would either lose her job or face demotion. By these counts, the FMLA has had a monumental impact on increasing both employee well-being and the level of diversity within the American labor force. (Labor Law …show more content…
Over the years, many Americans have pointed out the successes of the act- such as the generally positive impact that the act has had on employee absenteeism, turnover, and morale, that tend to come about with little to no negative impact on the employers themselves. (WHD: Survey Factsheet). Yet, an alternative perspective of the FMLA views the act as unnecessary and believes that the FMLA is actually hindrance upon employers who should be able to set their own policies and agendas on the subject of employee leave. Lastly, some people even tend to argue that the FMLA fails to go far enough into protecting employee well-being. In recent years, an increasing number of Americans have called for a revision of our current FMLA, citing a desire to institute a more comprehensive leave act with expanded employer coverage, looser requirements for employee leave, and even the desire to institute a paid leave system, as opposed to this current unpaid leave system.
A parent is allowed leave for the birth of a child and care of a newborn. The entitlement to FMLA/DPL leave expires twelve months after the birth of the child. Intermittent/reduced schedule leave may not be taken for the birth of a child unless approved by the department head.
Bennett-Alexander, Dawn D. & Hartman, Laura P. (2001). Employment Law for Business (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Primis Custom Publishing. Downloaded February 4, 2008 from the data base of http://www.eeoc.gov
In response to the increasing need for employees to balance the demands of the workplace with the needs of families, Congress passed the Family and Medical Leave Act. Without a policy like FMLA in place, many employees often would have had to choose between “the job they need and the family they love” (Hayes). The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 is the first national law created to help Americans balance the demands of the workplace with the needs of the family. It successfully helps bridge the gap between family and work and secures the right for both men and women to get unpaid leave and assistance when dealing with family related circumstances.
According the article study by Mulvaney, FFEBP are employee benefits that extend beyond the requirements established by the Family and Medical Leave Act. (Mulvaney, 2014, p. 461). The Family and Medical Leave Act allowed for employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid work leave for things like child birth, adoption, and workers or family illness. The FFEBP programs are split up into four categories: 1) Dependent Care Support, 2) Flexible Work Arrangements, 3) Leave Programs and Time Off, and 4) Work-Family Stress Management. The first category, dependent care support includes perks such as on-site child care, after-school programs, and eldercare referral. Flexible work arrangement includes flextime, job sharing, and compressed work weeks. Leave programs and time off include family leave, personal leave of absence, and leave bank. Lastly, work-family stress management includes health promotion, work-family resource center and courses on life balancing. After reviewing the results of FFEBP benefits, the study found that for government workers there was a positive correlation between employee productivity and benefit programs (Mulvaney, 2014,
Every day in California, working men and women face conflicts between their work responsibilities and their families. In order to work they must make arrangements for their children and elderly family members who need assistance. They address these conflicts through a variety of child-care, after-school, and eldercare arrangements. But sometimes when a child is seriously ill, an aging parent’s health deteriorates suddenly, or a baby is born or adopted, these daily arrangements are no longer adequate. At such times of family need, an employee simply must take time off from work because no alternative care arrangements will do. That is why in 1993, Congress passed the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which was the first national policy designed to help working people balance their work and family responsibilities. It guarantees that people who work for companies with more than 50 employees can take up to 12 weeks’ unpaid leave a year to care for a newborn or newly-adopted child or for certain seriously ill family members, or to recover from their own serious health conditions.
According to the U. S. Department of Labor, FMLA is designed to help employees balance their work and family responsibilities and it seeks to promote equal employment opportunity for men and women. FMLA applies to all public agencies, public and private elementary and secondary schools, and all companies with 50 or more employees (U. S. Department of Labor, 2010).
In practice, the Family Medical Leave Act entitles eligible workers to up to twelve weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave with healthcare benefits on an annual basis. The leave can be utilized to address the individual’s serious health concerns or to care for selected immediate family members such as disabled parents, spouses, or children (Jorgenson, Appelbaum, 2014). Additionally, workers are able to maintain their healthcare coverage and must be reinstated to a similar position with similar pay at the end of their leave (Morris, 2014). Despite notable efforts to provide relief for caregivers, the provisions offered under FMLA are significantly limited in practice. only required of businesses in the private sector if they employee more than
Women have the wonderful ability to bring a new life into this world and are granted maternity leave, a certain amount of time after birth to be away from the labor force. However, maternity leave was not always available to women because of the low levels of employed and educated females. In 1978 changing gender norms and increased female labor involvement influenced the passing of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act prohibiting employment discrimination of women due to pregnancy (Smith, Downs, and O’Connell 3). After this legislation, a higher percentage of women in the United States were not only educated but also employed. In 1987, a critical Supreme Court case (California Federal Savings and Loan Association v. Guerra) in California defined
Linda Houser, Ph. D. & Thomas P. Vartanian, Ph. D. Pay Matters: The positive Economic Impacts of Paid Family Leave for Families, Businesses, and the Public. New Brunswick: Rutgers Center for Women and Work, 2012. Document.
“The Family and Medical Leave Act provides certain employees with up to twelve weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per year.” FMLA is to help employees balance their family and work responsibilities. FMLA only applies to employees who have met certain requirements. “Some requirement that must be met are the employee has to work for a covered employer, has worked 1,250 hours prior to the start of the leave, work at a location where the employer has 50 or more employees within 75 miles and has worked for the employer for twelve months.” Some reasons to take leave include the birth of a son or daughter, placement of a son or daughter with the employee for adoption or foster care, to care for a family member who has a serious medical condition,
The FMLA was passed to help families in the time of a crisis so that the individuals would not have to choose between work and personal responsibilities. The eligible employees are permitted to take unpaid, job-protected leave for specified family and medical reasons. The leave can last up to twelve workweeks in any twelve-month period. Reasons for leave include: pregnancy, prenatal complications, adoption/ fostering of a child, hospitalization, care of an immediate family member, or a health condition that makes the employee unable to do his or her job (Solis). This law applies to any employer “engaging in commerce” ...
The Family Medical Leave Act first became effective on August 5, 1993. It was designed to help balance the employee's family needs and work responsibilities. FMLA can only apply to employees who have met certain requirements. “Some requirements that must be met are the employee has to work for a covered employer, has worked 1,250 hours prior to the start of the leave, works at a location where the employer has 50 or more employees within 75 miles and has worked for the employer for twelve months.” FMLA only applies to immediate family such as parents, spouses or children. Reasons to take leave could include but are not limited to, the birth of a son or daughter, placement of child within the hands of the employee or adoption or foster care,
With the rise of the modern age economic survival has become difficult for families based on a single income. This economic need along with modern attitudes toward gender equality has resulted in women being represented in the workforce in greater numbers. However, until the 1960’s women faced severe discrimination when trying to enter and maintain a position in the workforce. Often qualified women would be passed over for men with less experience and education. Employers were fearful that women were too emotional and were not equipped to handle the stress of the work environment. Also driving the decision to not hire or promote women was the concern over the additional health care expenses and leave time pregnant employees would require. The road to equal treatment of women in the workforce would begin with the passage of Civil Rights Act of 1964, specifically the portion entitled Title VII. While Title VII offered women some projection against discrimination in the workforce the ambiguity of the law would prevent protection on one key area: pregnancy. The legislation that would remove the final discriminatory roadblock to woman in the workforce would come from the passage of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978. This momentous act would extend the coverage of Title VII and prevent discrimination of women in employment due to a pregnancy and pregnancy related complications. While the law may have stemmed from a controversial decision by the Supreme Court
While the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act theoretically guarantees all workers up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for a new child or sick family member, it applies only to businesses with more than 50 employees, only covers workers that have been with their employer for at least one year, and doesn’t extend to part-time workers. These exemptions are significant; they ensure that just over half of American workers and less than a fifth of all new mothers are actually covered by FMLA. And they disproportionately affect low-income workers, who are more likely to work for small businesses, change employers frequently, and piece together multiple part-time
It is time we stop treating child care as a side issue or a women’s issue, and treat it like the priority that it is. Paternity leave is good for women's careers. “When childcare responsibilities fall exclusively on the mother, the effect is to reduce women’s wages. Time out of the labor force deprives women of experience and promotions. When men shoulder more of the childcare burden, the effect is lessened (“The Benefits of Paternity Leave”).” Paid family leave has become an important way to signal to employees that the company is invested in them. People feel their company is committed to them in the long term. Overall, paid family leave helps keep people in the workforce after they have children. “When more workers are able to take leave, they are more likely to choose to remain in the labor market. Paid parental leave is associated with higher employment in economies around the world (Covert)”.