Family Medical Leave Act - Research Paper Example

Family Medical Leave Act Passed in 1993 by congress, the Act grant twelve-weeks protected unpaid leave off duty to employees for purposes stated in the act, within any period of twelve months. The implementation of the FMLA is under the mandate of the department of labor. The eligibility of employees to the FMLA is dependent on specific considerations. These include the length of service that the employee has served his or her employer. Qualified employees eligible for the provisions of the act include those who are already in service for a minimum of one year, in their current employment positions (Murphy, Waterfill & Braun, 2004). The employees should meet the 1250 minimum working hours under their current positions, as well, to gain eligibility to have the leave. They law outlines the procedure for the acquisition of a leave under the act. An eligible qualified employee for the leave files a thirty day advanced request for leave. The acceptance of the request filed by the employee depends on the employer’s receipt of the required documents for approval. There is a provision for eighteen days for the return of certification healthcare forms from a qualified healthcare provider. Non-compliance to the provisions outlined in the procedure amounts to non-approval of the request for the leave. At the end of the leave, the employee brings a notification, from the health provider, stating the position of the employee to return to duty. The notification shall provide, where need be, restrictions that the employee should consider in relation to the execution of duty. The notification submission is a day before the employee returns from the leave. The FMLA covers a number of categories of employers in various sectors. It covers employers who have fifty or more than that number of employees under their service. It covers state employers . Also covered in the act are local government employers. The later does not have any provision of the minimum number of employees (Alexander & Alexander, 2005). Under the law, there are provisions that allow employees to who are eligible to take work leaves. The employees’ right to take twelve weeks leave should have its basis on the various reasons stipulated therein, within any period of twelve months. The circumstances, under which the break can be granted, include the birth of a child . An employee also has the right to a work break within twelve months period to take care for a new born. The law also provides for work breaks for employees for reasons of placement of a child, by the employee. Placement of child may be through adoption as well as foster care. The provision also provides for leaves from work for employees for purposes of caring for serious health conditions of family members. Family members for whose care the law allows the employee to care for include spouses, children and parents of the employee. The law provide for unpaid leave for employees who are under serious health conditions. It recognizes that unhealthy conditions of employees affect their performance in their duties and productivity. In elaborating the extent to which a health condition is termed as serious, the law provides for an interpretation of the term. A serious condition of health includes any form of illness or injury, any form of impairment or physical or mental disorder. It also includes an inpatient care or any treatment that a health care provider prescribes for an employee. A health condition, however, is not considered serious when the condition requires brief treatment to get the employee back to recovery. These include common colds and food poisoning among other health concerns. Besides the right to an unpaid break from work, the law outlines other rights that employees are eligible to, during the leave. The law provides for the maintenance of the employee’s level of coverage that he or she had at the time when the leave started. This pertains to the coverage on health plan that the employee had at the time proceeding the commencement time of the leave. When the leave is over, the act requires that the employee maintain the position that he or held, before taking a work break. The employee, therefore, hold the right to reclaim his or her job level. This prevents employers from discriminating against their employees who are under work leave by assigning then lower positions after leave than those held prior to the leave. As a way of ensuring employers grant leave to employees who genuinely deserve it, the law provides for the employers’ right to request certification. The submission certification documents prove that there exist serious health conditions and subsequently the need for the leave. Such certification shall require the provision of information on the serious health condition that prompts the employee to request for a work leave. The law also provides for the employer to keep confidential medical files of any employee, different from that of the employee’s personal life used by the employer as record of the employees’ details. This, however, need to be consistent with the set confidentiality standards set in the law. The law outlines a number of provisions for intermittent or occasional leave. In the context of the legislation, an employee is eligible to have an intermittent or occasional leave. This occurs when the twelve weeks in within the provided twelve months elapse. Should such an extension occur given extended medical arrangement, for instance, the employee gets a temporary transfer to another position. Such a temporary alternative position should suit the employee’s qualification requirements as well as suit the health care extension requirements as reduced work hours. The provision for an extended medical insurance cover for the employee by the employer is a provision under the law, for the period of the leave offered to the employee. Then employee has his or her entitlement to coverage of for health insurance. These include family or dependent health insurance coverage. The employee, during the period the leave, has the entitlement to pay premiums that provide for his or her medical insurance cover. Since the employee pays all the premiums during the period of the leave, he or she has the entitlement to the benefits from such health coverage. There arises cases when there more than one medical condition for an employee. Other cases include the presence of more than one doctor for the employee. Is such a case, the employee submits certified medical forms for every medical condition when requesting for a leave. In case of more than one doctor for an employee, every one of the doctors approves the employee’s need to have a medical leave. There is full time and intermittent leaves outlined under the act. In full time, the leave occurs in consecutive days while in intermittent, the leave granted is in specified days or hours. The act, in 2008, underwent amendments to provide for two additional different types of eligible employees. After the amendment, the act provided for leaves offered for military-related exigencies. It also provided for the cover of service members. For the cover of service members, the act provides for employees to request for a maximum of twenty-six weeks leave, unpaid, to provide care to service members. The leave, as prior to the amendment, is within the period of twelve months. The employ should meet the provisions regarding the extent of relationship to the service member. The twenty-six week introduced after the amendment is exclusive to the twelve weeks stated prior to the amendments. This amendment took effect from January 2008. The provision of leave on exigent circumstances took effect in 2009 (Office of the Federal Register, 2009). It allowed employees to get leaves when those related to them as parents, children or spouses, in military duty is summoned to duty because of contingency operations. The amendment, however, provided the leave duration to as twelve weeks in every twelve months. References Alexander, K & Alexander, D. (2005). American Public School Law. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning. Murphy, M, Waterfill, M, & Braun, J. (2004). The Family And Medical Leave Act: A Dozen Years Of Confusion: A Compliance Guide For Employers. Bloomington, IL : AuthorHouse. Office of the Federal Register (2009).Code of Federal Regulations, Title 29, Labor, Pt. 500-899, Revised as of July 1 2009. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. Read More