Family And Medical Leave Act: A Case Study

You get the phone call in the middle of the night. Your son or daughter has been in a serious accident and is hospitalized in critical condition. After several day’s they come home from the hospital with several broken bones and require your around the clock attention for the next eight to twelve weeks. You just got over a serious medical condition yourself which you acquired while on vacation and do not have any vacation time or sick time to take off. Do you have to quit your job? Can your employer terminate you for taking time off to be with your child? What options do you have? What can your employer do for you? Well, the answer lies in the Family and Medical Leave Act.

The company in which employee A works for is considered a covered employer because the company employs more than fifty employees for which is assumed for more than twenty weeks each year. Employee A has worked for the covered employer for two years, which makes him a covered employee based on the given information. Employee A was not required to give advanced notice due to the unforeseen circumstances of the premature birth. Upon employee A’s return, he was given his original job back along with the same rate of pay. Since employee A took leave under the FMLA, his leave is considered unpaid and the eleven weeks of pay are not required to be given to the employee. In the case of employee A, no violation has been committed.

The Family and Medical Leave Act sets regulations for job-protected leave related to family and medical reasons. FMLA applies to organizations with 50 or more employees working within 75 miles of the employee’s worksite (“Employment Laws,” n.d., para. 6). Employees who have been with their current employer for 12 months and who have worked 1250 hours of service in the previous 12 months are eligible for 12 weeks of unpaid leave through FMLA (“Eligibility Requirements,” Revised 2013). FMLA covers the following leave reasons:

Employees with legitimate reasons have the right to take leave without any restraint from his or her employer. This means that an employer cannot interfere or deny an employee of family and medical leave if that person meets the criteria. The act grants people several rights. Upon return, these workers should have either the same job position or one that is equivalent to their previous job. The job security aspect of this act is a huge benefit. Workers returning from leave do not have to worry about being replaced or fired for taking the necessary leave. Family and medical leave can be used once each year if necessary. Group health benefits are protected and maintained while on leave as well. If a person has a complaint or wants to file a private lawsuit under the act, he or she can take it up with the local Wage and Hour Division office and does not have to worry about being fired. These matters are handled privately and the Wage and Hour Division Office will work on getting the issue resolved or correcting the violation and mending the damage (Solis).

The Family and Medical Leave Act sets regulations for job-protected leave related to family and medical reasons. FMLA applies to organizations with 50 or more employees working within 75 miles of the employee’s worksite (“Employment Laws,” n.d., para. 6). Employees who have been with their current employer for 12 months and who have worked 1250 hours of service in the previous 12 months are eligible for 12 weeks of unpaid leave through FMLA (“Eligibility Requirements,” Revised 2013). FMLA covers the following leave reasons:

The company is covered under the Family Medical Leave Act of 1993. The employee was eligible for unpaid leave, gave notice, and was granted unpaid time off. The employee was reinstated to the same position upon return to work with the same salary.THE COMPANY DID NOT VIOLATE THE FAMILY MEDICAL LEAVE ACT OF 1993.

The Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) was enacted to offer relief and protection to those workers

Some history on the case, Francis started working with Elsevier in 1991. The role of his employment was that of a production assistant. After a while, he was rehired after a company restructuring in which his new position was that of an associate database publishing editor. The main problem of the case concerns his wife's condition, amytrophic lateral sclerosis. Due to her condition he considered his potential rights under the Family Leave Act with a human resources representative from the company. A boss change led to him being interviewed with a new supervisor where he discussed his wife's condition. Shortly after he was dismissed. "Randall Francin had worked at Mosby, Inc., for twelve years before his wife was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (LouGehrig's disease). "(Cross & Miller, 540) I believe if Francin's wife's condition was not discussed his performance would not have come into question. From the evidence presented especially after the appeal, I believe he was unlawfully terminated considering the close timing of his dismissal after it was known of his wife's condition.

The FMLA or The Family and Medical Leave Act allows eligible employees who work for companies that the Act applies to take unpaid, job-protected leave for family and or medical reasons. As stated on US Department of Labor’s website (2015), a covered employer must have 50 or more employees in 20 or more work weeks in the current or preceding calendar year, including a joint employer or successor in interest to a covered employer. It may also be a public agency which includes local, state or Federal agencies, regardless of the number of employees that it employs. Eligible employees work for a covered

There are many different types of qualified leave under the FMLA law. Employees can use family medical leave for the following reasons. The birth of a son or daughter, the placement of a fostered or adopted son or daughter with the employee. To care for a spouse, son, daughter or parent of the employee if they have a serious medical condition that requires doctors care. For the employee if they have a serious medical condition that prevents them from performing their position, and lastly if because of any qualifying exigency (as the Secretary shall, by regulation, determine) arising out of the fact that the spouse, or a son, daughter, or parent of the employee is on covered active duty (or has been notified of an impending call or order to covered active duty) in the Armed

Human Resource Management professionals reported issues with “tracking/administering intermittent FMLA leave, determining the overall costs incurred while complying with the requirements of the FMLA and determining whether an intermittent serious health condition should be protected by the FMLA.” (Frincke, pg. 7) There are no statutes or policies in the FMLA that states the employee must furnish a doctor’s note, but many state regulations do require it. If there are any questions in regards to the seriousness of the employee’s condition, the employer can ask that documentation be provided if this requirement is made known before hand. There are also situations where an employer may dispute a doctor’s recommendation and they may require the employee to get a second opinion. The doctor will then have to determine that the duties of the employer’s job cannot be performed or the requested leave is medically necessary.

The second practice I have taken away is the Family Medical Leave Act. I chose the Family Medical Leave Act because It is important to consider your employee’s health and consider that your employees have family. This practice can be taught by showing management how to let someone have this leave and show them in the benefits packet. You can also have the law posted in the Human resources department. This practice can be used for employees who are sick or for the employees that have family that are sick or if you have an employee who just adopted or had a baby.

     The Family and Medical Leave Act was enacted by Congress on February 5, 1993, and it is public law 103-3. This law allows for a person to leave work in certain situations without losing his/her job. An eligible employees must have worked for the employer for at least 12 months and at least completed 1250 hours of service. An employee is able to leave work for up to 12 weeks for any of the following reasons: the employee expects a baby in his/her immediate family, the employee expects an adopted child in his/her immediate family, the employee has to take care of an ill family member which includes spouse, parent or his/her own children, and/or the employee has a serious medical

Pregnancy and early child development is a fundamental aspect of human society, and is pertinent to the development of a successfully functioning community. The developmental and social progress of any civilization relies on children, as they will compose the future working population. Therefore, a mother or father’s involvement in the child’s development is of extreme importance, which is why family leave has been implemented all over the world. Family leave refers to the period of time granted to the employee to care for their newborn child. As communities evolve economically, financial stability is necessary, for what is perceived to be socially successful for a child’s development, which is why paid family leave is popular throughout the world’s nations. However, ABC News reports that “the U.S. is only one of three countries in the world that don't offer paid maternity leave” (Kim, 2015); the same is true for paternity leave. The United States government has an interesting track record dealing with family leave, but in order to analyze what the US government and advocacy groups have done to solve this issue, there first needs to be an understanding on why this issue is so difficult to resolve. The arguments that support and oppose paid family leave in the United States are equally valid, therefore causing a stalemate in the attempted policy making of legislative bodies.

Family and Medical leave act is a very important law and very halpful for employers especialy for women when they have a new born baby or when they pregnant. Most women do medical leave when they pregnant. One of my friends work at Ross and she was very sick one day but they didn't accept her medical leave because she is part time. This law should be everywhere because it's very important. With out this law it would be more harder for people to have a day off or absence when they sick.