The Expanded Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)

Introduction 

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) was introduced many years ago with the aim of providing employees with the right to job-protected leave. The policy was introduced in 1993 to help employees balance their work and the family responsibilities by permitting them to make a reasonable unpaid leave for certain family and medical reasons ( Huang & Yang, 2015 ). It permits employees to take up to twelve weeks of unpaid, but job-protected leave per year. With the erosion of the employer-provided fringe benefits and the ever-weakening job security, employees are increasingly becoming unable to get medical leave when faced with serious illness or when a family member is sick. Furthermore, there has been increased demand for time-off to go and offer care to the ailing family members as more women join the workforce. Under the FMLA, employees are allowed to take leave and care for sick family members, childbirth or deployment of a family member. Since the enactment of the law, increased care for the extended family members have been witnessed leading to better health outcome for the majority of the population. 

Covered Employers 

Family Medical Leave Act applies to the employers who are covered under the act. This may include private sector employer, public agency or school. The covered employers re required under the law to provide FMLA benefits and protection to the employees who are eligible for the leave ( Huang & Yang, 2015 ). Employers in the private sector are covered under the act if they have up to fifty employees or more in the previous working weeks. An employee is considered to be employed each working day if the employee can work on any day of the week, and the working days must not be consecutive. For an employee to be eligible under the act, certain conditions must be met. These include, the employee must be working within the United States and its territory. The employee must also have his name appearing on the payroll records whether the employee receives weekly compensation or not. Employees of foreign firms but operating within the United States are also eligible for the leave. However, a certain group of employees is non-eligible for the leave under the act. These employees include those whose employment contract had ended, unpaid volunteers and employees whose names do not feature in the payroll and United States employees working outside the country. 

Major Provisions of the Family and Medical Leave Act 

Under this provision, an eligible employee is one who has worked for the employer for at least twelve months even though it must not be consecutive months. Preceding the start of the family medical leave, an employee must have worked for at least 1250 hours, and that particular employee must be employed at the site of the work. Family and medical leave act cover both the public and private sector employees. While employees in the private sector must be at least fifty employees, employees in the public sector are covered regardless of the number of employees. Upon return from the leave, employees have the right to return to another leave ( Blau & Kahn, 2013 ). FMLA is usually unpaid leave. However, an employee may substitute unpaid FMLA leave with a paid leave. Under the provision, an employee might take up to 12 weeks of the leave for birth and child care, care or adopted child, care for a spouse, child under the age of 18 years or even a parent who is critically ill. The FMLA leave may be intermittent for continuous. However, the law requires the employer to provide the employee with an intermittent leave and allow him to work part-time if there is a need for a medical leave. 

Covered employees are also required to take two major types of military leave. Eligible employees may take up to 12 weeks leave where the eligible employees may include spouse, son or daughter and members of armed forces deployed in another country. A qualifying agency constitutes of the short notice deployment, time for employees to arrange for the childcare among others. The second eligibility is where the employee may take up to 26 weeks of the military caregiver leave in a single twelve month period ( Porter, 2013 ). Spouses, children, parents and next of kin are covered under the act. Furthermore, there is an application of a special FMLA in covering members of the airline flight crews. A member of the crew is eligible under the act if she had worked for at least 504 hours over the last twelve months before being guaranteed the leave. 

Eligible Employees 

Only eligible employees are entitled to have the family and medical leave. Eligible employees are those who work for a covered employer, have worked for at least 12 months for the same employee, have at least 1250 hours of service for the same employee over the last one year prior to the leave and the employee work at a site where the employer has 50 or more employees within a range of 75 miles. 

Notice 

The employees are required to comply with employer’s requirements while requesting for the leave by giving sufficient information to the employer so that the employer can determine whether the employee deserves the requested leave. A notice for request must be made 30 days prior to being guaranteed the leave especially when the need is foreseeable. However, when the leave is foreseeable within less than 30 days, the employee must communicate immediately to the employer. While seeking for an FMLA leave for the first time, the employee must not expressly rely on the FMLA rights or even mention it. Any subsequent requests for the leave will then require the employee to assert the FMLA rights by relying on a qualifying reason. Employers who are covered are required to post a notice that describes the rights and responsibilities as stated under the leave act. Wilful failure by the employer to post such notice may attract a penalty to the employer. Also, employers are required to include all the necessary information about the leave act in the handbooks of the employees as well as providing such information to the new employees. In circumstances when the employee requests for the leave or the employer obtains knowledge about it, the employer must provide the employee with notice concerning his eligibility for the FMLA leave and his responsibilities as well as rights under the act. The employer is also required to notify the employee as to whether the leave is designated or not and the amount of leave that will be deducted from the FMLA entitlement. 

Certification 

When the employee makes a request for the leave under the act due to own serious illness or that of a family member, the employer will expect the employee to provide a certification from the healthcare provider s confirmation for the illness of a family member. The employer may also demand a second or even a third medical opinion which is usually at the expense of the employee. Certification of a serious health condition is therefore necessary for confirming whether a person requires a leave. 

Job Restoration and Health Benefits 

After an employee finishes her leave, that particular employee has to be restored to his or her original work or an equivalent job that offers equal pay, benefits and other terms and conditions as the previous job. An employer is also expected under the act to continue with the growing health insurance coverage for the employee who is on leave under the same terms and conditions as they were before the employee took the leave. 

Enforcement of the Leave Act 

It is unlawful for the law for any employer to deny, interfere or restrain in any attempt to have employees obtain their rights under the act. Discrimination while offering the leave act is also unlawful and can attract penalties. All employees who qualify for the leave must be given that right without being discriminated on any ground. The wage and hour division is responsible and useful in administering and enforcing the FMLA for the majority of the employees. Most employees in the federal and Congress are also protected by the law even though they are subjected to the jurisdiction of the United States Office of Personnel Management. Anyone who feels that his or her rights under the family and medical leave act have been violated can launch a complaint at the Wage and Hour Division or on can also file a suit against the employer at the court of law. 

Expanding the FMLA Coverage 

In the year 2012, it was estimated that 44% of the employees mainly in the private sector were ineligible for the FMLA ( Jorgensen & Appelbaum, 2014 ). This is because they worked at small work sites and had not worked for the employer for twelve months and worked less than the full-time hours required under the act. Relaxation of the eligibility rules would enhance and increase the number of those who are covered under the act and expand the coverage to millions of the employees. For example, reducing the employee threshold from fifty workers to thirty could increase the eligibility for the employees who work in small companies with a few numbers of employees. Studies have shown that lowering the employee threshold from fifty employees to thirty employees would help increase the number of eligible employees from 56% to 60% within just a year. Also, reducing the hour restriction from 1250 hours to 1050 hours has been estimated to increase the eligibility of the employees to 58%. Studies have shown that a combined reduction of the total number of hours and the number of employees’ threshold can increase the number of eligible employees by 8.3 million. The family medical leave act provides the leave for maternity-related sicknesses as well as for the new parents to give them time to care for their newborn babies, adopted child or even a close family member. Under this new rule, 58% of the childbearing age women are eligible for the leave under the act. Therefore lowering the employee's number in private sectors to thirty as well as reducing the number of hours can raise the eligibility of women in the range of childbearing age which is between 18 and 44 years up to 67% which represent 3.1 million more female employees being added to the coverage. Majority of the women are employed in the smaller employee firms which have less than fifty employees and therefore lowering the minimum number of thee employees would undoubtedly benefit the child-bearing women. 

Analysis has also found that disparity in eligibility across educational attainment and the income of the income. The disparity is likely to increase as employees as the employees with at least some college experience would benefit from the leave that other employees. Therefore, further lowering of the threshold and hours would increase the eligibility of majority of the workers without university degrees. Many factors affect the inadequate coverage of the workers with low education among them including working in the areas associated with high job turnover hence more unlikely to meet the requirements of the leave act even if the employer may have a large number of employees and hour’s threshold. Also, employees who are ineligible may use lack of employment as a substitute for the unpaid leave thus contributing further to a non-stable employment relationship ( Mayer, 2012 ). 

Contributions of the Expanded Family and Medical Leave Act 

Since its introduction, this act has had great benefits not only to the employees but also to the healthcare sector. Most American families have been able to use the law many times while obtaining leave to offer care for their ill relatives. It has permitted the mother to take care of their newborn children or care for ailing parents and spouse without necessarily affecting their jobs or the health insurance. Ailing family members require special care and emotional support from close family members. Since the leave act allows the employees to get leave and attend to the sick relatives, this is useful I improving the health outcome of the family members. Expanding the family and medical leave act have been useful in increasing the number of eligible employees thus giving them the opportunity to take care of their ill family members. 

Since its introduction, the policy has been used and helped millions of Americans keep safe their jobs while they care for their newborn babies or other family members. Employees have been able to take off up to 12 weeks away from the work while still ensuring that their job is safe and secure. While on leave, the employees are in a position to care for their sick family members or even care for their newborn children. This has had major contributions in the healthcare sector. While patients might receive care at the healthcare facilities, family care is very critical in determining the health outcome of the patient. Studies have shown that patients who receive enough care from their family members are more likely to respond positively to the treatment than those left in isolation by the family members. Since the FMLA offers the employees with leave to care for their sick family members, it has greatly improved the health outcome of the patients by offering emotional and psychological support. 

Also, the expanded family and medical leave act have been praised for enhancing a healthy work-life balance while at the same time creating a family-friendly workplace that is concerned about the welfare of the sick family members ( Magill, 2014 ). Giving employees annual leave whenever they have a sick family member to attend to can be so motivating despite the leave being unpaid. It gives Americans a federally protected right to have some time off work to attend to sick families, relatives, babies or even self-care. However, the success of the leave policy has not come without issues. Since its implementation in 1993, most employees have found the certification, administration, and compliance to much confusing and full of problems ( Magill, 2014 ). Complaints have been on the wording and language of the law which many consider s ambiguous and difficult to certify, administer or even track. Since it became law in the year 1993, the majority of women and children have been elated. With the restriction on the number of employees in the private sector to be fifty, many workers in the small businesses have been made ineligible to get such benefits. The working hours which had been fixed at 1250 before the request and guarantee of the leave have also minimized the use of this policy. Some women may have spouses or babies ill, but since they are not eligible, they remain unable to get the leave and attend to their sick parents, children or even spouses. 

Also, many employees have been very reluctant to take advantage of the FMLA and attend for sick relatives. This is because of the fear that the employer may view them as unfavorable for taking such expanded family leave and that this might deny them the promotion or salary raise while they are on leave. Many low-income workers are also unable to take such leave because it is unpaid yet such low-income individuals may not go for such number of days without pay. Despite the many calls for the expansion of the family and medical leave act, some scholars have criticized the policy viewing it as a way through which employees look for minor ailments to force left, and this could have negative impacts on the productivity. 

Conclusion 

Since its implementation, the leave act has been useful in helping employees find time off work to attend to the ailing family members or relatives. However, the major issue has been its restrictions which many have questioned as barriers to increasing the eligibility of all workers despite the size of the firm. Setting the minimum number of employees at 50 for private sector have limited the women who work in small firms with less than fifty employees. Similarly, minimum of 1250 hours have been a barrier to the growth of the policy. Expansion of the family and medical leave act can be useful in promoting eligibility and increasing the number of people covered under the act. With the expansion, more millions of people will become eligible, and many people will have time off to attend to family members. 

References 

Blau, F. D., & Kahn, L. M. (2013). Female labor supply: Why is the United States falling behind?.  American Economic Review ,  103 (3), 251-56. 

Huang, R., & Yang, M. (2015). Paid maternity leave and breastfeeding practice before and after California's implementation of the nation's first paid family leave program.  Economics & Human Biology ,  16 , 45-59. 

Jorgensen, H., & Appelbaum, E. (2014).  Documenting the need for a national paid family and medical leave program: Evidence from the 2012 FMLA survey  (No. 2014-10). Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR). 

Magill, N. L. (2014). Balancing career and parenthood: the family medical leave act and maternity leave.  Widener L. Rev. ,  20 , 279. 

Mayer, G. (2012). The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA): An Overview. 

Porter, N. B. (2013). Finding a Fix for the FMLA: A New Perspective, a New Solution.  Hofstra Lab. & Emp. LJ ,  31 , 327.