FAMILY MEDICAL LEAVE
Federal, state, and local laws that authorize
employees to take paid or unpaid leave for a
defined period of time for major health-related
medical issues affecting their immediate family.
Beginning in the 1990s, federal and state
family medical leave laws were passed, allowing
employees to take unpaid leaves of absence from
work for major, family-related medical issues
without first obtaining permission from their
employers. Business managers worried that fam-
ily medical leave would make personnel manage-
ment very difficult and ultimately drive costs up.
However, by 2002, studies had shown that the
federal medical leave program had not unduly
hurt U.S. businesses. California began the next
stage in 2002, when it enacted a law that will pro-
vide employees with paid leaves of absence.
Some state and local governments enacted
family medical leave laws in the 1980s, but advo-
cates of this policy argued that a federal law was
needed. Congress passed a family medical leave
law twice in the early 1990s, but both times Pres-
ident GEORGE H. W. BUSH vetoed the legislation.
In February 1993, President BILL CLINTON
signed into law the Family and Medical Leave Act
of 1993 (FMLA), (29 U.S.C.A. § 2601 et seq.).
The act permits employees to take up to 12 weeks
of unpaid leave each year for family illness, child-
birth, or ADOPTION. It mandates that employers
maintain the employees’ insurance benefits and
give them their jobs back when they return.
The drive for a federal statute was caused in
part by changes in the workforce. Young moth-
ers and single parents joined the workforce and
needed options that generally were not required
by the traditional male breadwinner. These new
employees struggled to keep their jobs when
they needed to remain at home during the
workday when their children became sick.
Employees who missed too much work because
their children had serious medical problems
often lost their jobs. The federal law sought to
provide more security to employees who found
themselves in this predicament.
The FMLA, which took effect in August
1993, applies to all businesses and government
agencies that have 50 or more employees.
Employees become eligible for leave after one
year of employment at the business and after
working at least 1,250 hours in the previous 12
months. Employees are entitled to take up to 12
workweeks during a 12-month period. The leave
can be continuous and can be exhausted after 12
straight weeks, or the employee may take inter-
mittent leave. Intermittent leave is typically
taken when the employee or a family member is
fighting a serious illness during a chemotherapy
or other treatment cycle. In addition, intermit-
tent leave can take the form of a reduced work
schedule.
The FMLA limits the scope of the act to an
individual, immediate family, and parents. It also
describes the types of life situations that merit
mandatory leave. These situations include child-
birth, adoption, or the placement of a child with
a parent for foster care. Fathers, as well as moth-
ers, are permitted to exercise their leave rights for
these situations. Leave also can be taken in order
to care for a seriously ill spouse, child, or parent.
However, if both spouses work for the same
employer, they are jointly entitled to a combined
total of 12 weeks of leave for the above situations.
In addition, an employee is authorized to take
leave to fight a serious health problem.
Employees or employers may choose to use
accrued paid leave (sick or vacation leave) to
cover some or all of the FMLA leave. The
employer must designate whether an employee’s
use of paid leave counts as FMLA leave, based on
information from the employee. Employers also
have the right to request health certification
before granting leave. Disputes over eligibility
can be pursued through second and third med-
ical opinions at the employer’s expense, with a
third opinion considered binding.
Employers must pay their contributions to
employees’ HEALTH CARE insurance. If employ-
ees also contribute to the insurance plan, they
must make these payments while on leave.
Employers have recourse if employees do not
return to their jobs following a medical leave.
Employers can demand repayment of health
care premiums that they had paid during the
leave period.
Job security is generally guaranteed under
the FMLA, but not in all cases. If a company lays
workers off, it also may eliminate the position of
the person who is on leave. In such instances, the
employer has the burden of proving that the
employee would not otherwise have been
employed at the time the reinstatement was
sought. Another provision of the FMLA con-
cerns key employees, who are defined at the
highest-paid 10 percent of a company’s work-
force. Key employees are not guaranteed rein-
statement and must be informed of this fact
when they apply for leave. Employers may deny
reinstatement to key employees if granting leave
would cause substantial and serious economic
injury to the company.
Although businesses feared added costs and
great disruptions from the FMLA, LABOR
DEPARTMENT statistics have shown that the
statute has not been costly or disruptive, with
less than four percent of the workforce annually
taking family medical leave. Many analysts
believe that the reason why more workers do not
take advantage of the law is that it provides
unpaid leave, and many workers simply cannot
afford to take advantage of the law. Some also
speculate that psychological pressures keep
employees from applying for leave, and that they
believe that their supervisors will view them as
less-serious workers.
In 2002, California became the first state to
tackle the question of paid family medical leave
by mandating up to six weeks of paid family and
medical leave. Beginning in 2004, the Family
Temporary Disability Pay Law will require
employees to contribute a small amount from
each paycheck to fund a medical leave program.
The annual deduction ranges from $11.24, for
MINIMUM WAGE earners, to a maximum of $70,
for those persons earning $72,000 or more. Per-
sons who take leave will receive 55 percent of
