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U.S. Seeks Feedback on Employee Leave Act December 7, 2006 (Newsday, Melville, N.Y.) — The U.S. Labor Department plans to take a hard look at the worker-friendly Family and Medical Leave Act, a move that could signal the agency's intention to make some changes in its regulations that provide guidelines for administering the act. On Dec. 1, the department put the FMLA up for public comment in the Federal Register. It is asking interested parties to comment on their experiences administering the act. The move comes more than 10 years after the law took effect during the Clinton administration, in 1995. Some human resource managers are cheering the action because they say the law is an administrative quagmire. But worker advocates fear the move could lead to the department drafting new regulations that would diminish employees' rights under FMLA. The law gives employees the right to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave a year to care for a newborn or to tend to personal or family medical emergencies. The leaves can be taken in weeks, months or partial days. The law protects jobs and benefits while a worker is on leave. In 2005, 6.1 million workers took FMLA leaves, according to the Labor Department. In a news release announcing its decision to seek comment, the department noted that a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision found that the agency had exceeded its authority in penalizing employers when they failed to properly designate an employee's leave as an FMLA leave. That meant the employees didn't receive the benefits and protections of the law. Debra Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women and Families in Washington, D.C., said minor fixes could bring FMLA into compliance with the Supreme Court decision and other rulings. "I would hope that the DOL is not going to do any kind of sweeping changes in these regulations," said Ness, whose group built the coalition that created the first draft of the FMLA. "To be in any way thinking about rolling back protections would really be out of touch with the needs of working families." But a survey last month by the Society for Human Resource Management found that one of the the biggest challenges companies face in administering the law is tracking the intermittent leaves that eligible employees with chronic health conditions can take. "If you're running an organization ... and you have people taking leave on an irregular basis, it's just difficult to [schedule employees]," said Mike Aitken, director of governmental affairs for the Alexandria, Va., group. Employers have also complained that unclear definitions regarding "serious illnesses" make it difficult to determine if an employee's illness qualifies for an FMLA leave. "Employers aren't sure, so they err on the side of giving it," Aitken said. The Department of Labor says comments must be submitted by Feb. 2 and can be e-mailed to whdcomments@dol.gov. Comments of 20 pages or fewer can be faxed to 202-693-1432. Or write to Richard M. Brennan, senior regulatory officer, Wage and Hour Division, Employment Standards Administration, U.S. Department of Labor, Room S-3502, 200 Constitution Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20210. Copyright (c) 2006, Newsday, Melville, N.Y. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News. |
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