Next on Feds' agenda: Working Families Flexibility Act

There’s good employee-benefit legislation, and there’s bad employee-benefit legislation. You can make the call on this one.
Congress has added the Working Families Flexibility Act to the round of bills on this year’s agenda.
The act would provide a statutory right to employees to ask their employer for a change relating to the employee’s hours of work, time of work, or location of work. Employees would be required to submit an application to the employer requesting the change. Then, employers would be required to hold discussions with the employee about the application. Employers would then be required to provide a written decision to the employee within 14 days of the conclusion of the discussion.
In the case of a rejection, the employer must state the reasons for the decision and “may” propose the company’s own alternative to the employee’s request. Employees will have the right to request reconsideration of a rejected application, and then the process of discussion and 14-day deadline for response kicks in again.
According to the wording in the bill, employers may not “interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise” any right provided under the Act, nor may employers discharge, “or in any other manner discriminate” against any employee because the employee requested the work change or appealed an initial decision.
Employees who felt they’d been subject to discrimination or retaliation could file a complaint with the Department of Labor. The complaint will be investigated and violators would be subject to a penalties of $1,000 to $5,000. In the case of retaliatory demotion or firing, the employee would be entitled to equitable relief including reemployment, reinstatement, promotion, back pay, and a change in the terms and conditions of employment.
The effect: None, if you’re already dealing reasonably with employees who make requests concerning hours or work location. The law is aimed primarily at employers who take a hang-’em-high approach toward any employee who makes a request that’s slightly out of the ordinary.
If passed, however, the bill will add a layer of bureaucracy to what’s probably been a routine and informal process at your workplace.
Go here for a summary, overview and full text of the bill.