Family Medical Leave Act

Family Medical Leave Act

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) gives employees twelve weeks off for a worker’s own serious health condition, to bond with a new child, or to care for a seriously ill child, spouse or parent. The FMLA guarantees unpaid job-protected leave, including the maintenance of seniority and benefits and continuation of group health insurance coverage. The worker must be returned to the same or equivalent job at the end of their leave.  The FMLA applies to all public sector employees and to private sector employees in businesses of 50 or more workers within a 75-mile radius.  Additionally, employees must work for their employer for at least 12 months and have worked at least 1,250 hours in the year preceding the leave.

Commentary

Chamber of Commerce Was Wrong About Family and Medical Leave Law

February 04, 2013

This week will mark twenty years since the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) was signed into law by the newly inaugurated President Bill Clinton on February 5, 1993 after years of bitter opposition by the Chamber of Commerce and other business lobbies.

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US Capitol building

Darrel Issa’s Government Handover

January 05, 2011

By Donald Cohen and Peter Dreier. Posted on Huffington Post. January 5, 2011.

Newly emboldened as chair of the House’s key investigative committee, California Cong. Darrell Issa, the conservative Republican, sent letters to more than 150 business lobby groups, asking them to identify government rules that they want eliminated.

Issa wants to hand the government over to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a who’s who of corporate America. The new Republican Congress is their opportunity to get rid of those pesky environmental laws, consumer product safety laws and even rules to prevent another Wall St. financial train wreck.

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Cry Wolf Quotes

Passing this bill puts us on a slippery slope to closing exemptions and mandating paid leave.

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Representative Tom DeLay (R-TX).
11/13/1992 | Full Details | Law(s): Family Medical Leave Act

Even though the bill mandates unpaid leave, it is still costly for businesses….the costs of offering 12 weeks of maternity and infant-care leave and providing health insurance during the absence could run as much as $7.9 billion per year--costs which would be paid by consumers in the form of higher prices, a damaged economy, and a loss of jobs…Furthermore, America faces its stiffest economic competition in history. If our Nation's employers are to succeed in an increasingly complex and competitive global marketplace, they must have the flexibility to meet this challenge. It is vital that we do not mandate Federal policies which stifle the creation of new jobs or result in the elimination of existing jobs.

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Representative Bob Doran (R-TX).
11/13/1991 | Full Details | Law(s): Family Medical Leave Act

It's just a bad piece of legislation…This continuous tendency to try to mandate benefit policy creates a bad business environment for Tennessee and the U.S. as a whole…[benefits] should be left up to the employers and employees to determine.

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Steve Norris, spokesman for the Tennessee Business Roundtable, Memphis Business Journal.
05/14/1990 | Full Details | Law(s): Family Medical Leave Act

[I am] incredulous to hear from my staff that you are contemplating a compromise on parental leave legislation. [Mandated leave benefits are] the greatest threats to small business in America.

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John Sloane Jr., president of the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB).
12/01/1987 | Full Details | Law(s): Family Medical Leave Act
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Evidence

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