Congress considers 2 more FMLA changes
May 15, 2009 by Jim GiulianoPosted in: Employment law, FMLA, Health care, In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views, policies
Just when everyone figured out the latest round of changes to the Family and Medical Leave Act, here come two more proposals to modify FMLA.
The first proposal (H.R 2161) — introduced by Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH) — essentially seeks to reverse many of the changes passed in January, such as:
- Restore protections that prevent an employer from forcing an employee to use more incremental FMLA leave than is medically necessary
- Reverse limitations placed on the use of accrued paid leave while on FMLA
- Restore the prohibition on denying attendance bonuses as a consequence for taking FMLA leave
- Restore protections that prohibit the waiving of an employee’s FMLA rights without review and approval by the DOL or the courts
- Restore protections that prohibit an employer from approving or denying FMLA leave based on compliance or noncompliance with employer leave request policies
- Restore employee privacy by reversing regulations that would allow an employer to directly contact an employee’s medical provider
- Restore previous “fitness-for-duty” certification rules for employees who take intermittent leave
- Direct the Labor Department to (a) revise the so-called Bush regulations affecting recertification timelines and (b) revise the provided medical certification template to include the definition of a “serious health condition.”
The second proposal (H.R. 2132) came from Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY). This legislation, in summary, would amend the FMLA to permit leave to care for a domestic partner and other individuals in an employee’s extended family.
Specifically, Maloney’s bill calls for permitting FMLA-eligible employees to take leave to care for:
- a domestic partner
- a child of a domestic partner
- a same-sex spouse
- a parent-in-law, adult child, sibling, or grandparent if that person has an FMLA-qualifying “serious health condition.”
We’ll keep you posted on the progress of both bills.
Tags: Carol Shea-Porter, Carolyn Maloney, Family and Medical Leave Act, FMLA
May 18th, 2009 at 10:33 am
And who the heck will be left to actually work?
May 18th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
Proposal # 1 seems ridiculous – they spend loads of time and money coming up with the new regs and now only a couple of months later they will loads of time and money undoing it all.
Proposal # 2 makes sense
May 20th, 2009 at 8:18 am
Well said K Wolf. I’d like to add why do they keep going after FMLA? There are plenty of other laws that need reviewing. This is such a burden to deal with now; leave bad enough alone.
May 26th, 2009 at 8:43 am
How about we keep America Employer friendly so we all have jobs! The one issue I would like to see addressed is Intermittent leave; let’s nail that one down – otherwise, let’s move on.
May 26th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Busy work for congresspeople.
May 26th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
More work for bureaucrats, attorneys and HR staff. Unfortunately with all the government regulations and potential litigation, I’m afraid my employer may decide that it is just too costly to provide jobs here in the US.
May 26th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
As an HR professional I do not like all the hassle and paperwork, but if more companies treated their employees fairly then we would not have all these policies. Not having regulations from the government put this country in a really bad place.
I am not saying all companies treat their employees bad, but a lot of them do.
May 27th, 2009 at 10:01 am
Out of curiosity I called the offices of both Rep. Shea-Porter and Rep. Maloney to see if either of them ever worked in a business, ran a business or had to make a payroll. I’ll save you the trouble, neither ever worked in or ran a business. Ms. Shea-Porter was a teacher and social worker in a previous life and Ms. Maloney is a career politician. No wonder the FMLA program is screwed up!!!!
May 29th, 2009 at 11:27 am
Way to do your homework Fran. I would have never thought of that.
May 29th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
Another avenue that I have used is simply “google” them. The only problem is that you generally have to wade through a plethora of puffery in their bios.
July 2nd, 2009 at 1:07 pm
Managing fmla in blocks of time is not as much of an issue. I agree with Greg. Congress needs to help us with intermittent leave. That (and employee abuse) is where the real issues lie. This Carol Shea-Porter is not busy enough. Congress mandates we communicate these new changes to our staff then turns around and starts changing it just months after implementing the new version. What????!! Congress doesn’t seem to realize that they need thriving Amercian businesses more than we need them. We need term limits on these people!
August 18th, 2009 at 10:21 am
I agree that the intermitent leave portion is the biggest exposure to manage correctly, even when employees are not abusing it. I do not agree that they should have to bring a fitness to work statement everytime they have used intermitent leave. I have employees with diabetes and MS and a host of other issues, they may not be able to work for a morning or leave early or even take a day off to manage the symptoms but they don’t need to actually go to the doctor. Especially twice? No sence at all.
September 11th, 2009 at 7:47 am
I’m with K Wolf………what the heck are they thinking? I invite them to come and follow an FMLA process from beginning to end. Grazy!
November 23rd, 2009 at 3:24 am
It sounds like you’re creating problems yourself by trying to solve this issue instead of looking at why there is a problem in the first place
December 14th, 2009 at 10:49 am
I understand that Grandparents are not covered FMLA. What if an employee has power of attorney of a grandparent and handles everything for this person to include medical issues due to a serious medical condition? Are they covered under FMLA?