RESOURCE - What is the Family Leave Act?

Those of you who are about to have a baby or just had a baby - here is information about Family Leave Act:


Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (Public Law 103-3, enacted February 5, 1993) is a United States labor law allowing an employee to take unpaid leave due to illness or to care for a sick family member. It was one of the first major bills signed by President Bill Clinton in his first term, fulfilling a campaign promise.

Provisions
The law recognizes the growing needs of balancing family and work obligations and promises numerous protections to workers. Some of these protections include:

Twelve (12) workweeks of leave per twelve (12) months for various reasons such as

Caring for a newborn child
Handling adoption or foster care placement issues
Caring for a sick child, spouse or parent
Being physically unable to perform one's job
Restoration to the same position upon return to work. If the same position is unavailable, the employer must provide the worker with a position that is substantially equal in pay, benefits, and responsibility.
Protection of employee benefits even while on leave. An employee is entitled to reinstatement to all benefits that the employee was receiving before going on leave.
Protection of the employee to not have their rights under the Act interfered with or denied by an employer.
Protection of the employee from retaliation by an employer for exercising rights under the Act.
Generally, the Act ensures that all workers are able to take extended leaves of absence from work to handle family issues or illness without fear of being terminated from their jobs by their employers or being forced into a lower job upon their return.

The leave guaranteed by the act is unpaid, and is available to those working for employers with 50 or more employees within a 75 mile radius. In addition, an employee must have worked for the company at least 12 months and 1,250 hours in those 12 months. The benefits provided by the Act are not as generous as policies in some other countries, such as Sweden. Swedish parental leave provides 480 days (16 months) of paid leave (80% or more of wage) with similar return benefits to its American counterpart. The Swedish act includes stimulating national gender equality as an explicit goal.

The act also applies to all U.S. government employees and state employees. In 2003, the Supreme Court of the United States, in a 5-4 decision, upheld FMLA coverage for state employees in Nevada Department of Human Resources v. Hibbs. The state of Nevada had unsuccessfully challenged the provisions under the Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution.

The U.S. Code cite is 29 U.S.C. sec. 2601.

Some states have added some provisions to the Family Leave Act. Here is the site that lists the act by state:

http://www.ncsl.org/programs/employ/fmlachart.htm

We want to make sure you know your rights to take time off from work!