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

We think most Americans don't want the federal government to be their personnel administrators.

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Richard Lesher, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Washington Post.
05/15/1991 | 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

President Clinton touted his new ‘family leave’ bill, sold as free time off to care for children. It turns out the employers of 50 or more covered by the bill have to pay medical care during the leave. At an average cost of $2,000 for the leave, it is not surprising that a Gallup study for the National Federation of Independent Business, found that half of the businesses said they would be reluctant to hire young women under the law, would try to replace low-skilled jobs with machines, and would trim other benefits.

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The Washington Times.
02/23/1993 | 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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