DOL Issues Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to Amend FMLA
- Details
- Published on Tuesday, 31 January 2012 05:18
Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis announced that the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is issuing a notice of proposed rulemaking to amend the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) by expanding military family leave provisions and incorporating a special eligibility provision for airline flight crew employees. The FMLA entitles eligible employees who are working for employers covered by the Act, to take unpaid, job-protected leave for specified family and medical reasons. Eligible employees may take up to twelve workweeks of FMLA leave in a 12-month period for the birth, adoption or placement of a child, to care for a family member with a serious health condition, or because they are unable to work due to their own serious health condition.
Amendments to Military Family Leave
In 2008, the FMLA was amended to add special military family leave entitlements thereby providing an expanded leave entitlement which permits eligible employees who are the spouse, son, daughter, parent, or next of kin of a service member (National Guard, Reserves, or Regular Armed Forces) with a serious injury or illness incurred in the line of duty, to take up to twenty-six workweeks of unpaid, job protected FMLA leave during a single 12-month period to care for their family member (military caregiver leave), and to allow eligible employees whose spouse, child, or parent is called up for active duty in the National Guard or Reserves to take up to twelve workweeks of FMLA leave for “qualifying exigencies” related to the call-up of their family member (qualifying exigency leave).
The current proposal expands coverage for military caregiver leave for the first time to include care for covered veterans with a serious injury or illness. The proposal includes the statutory amendment’s limitation on coverage to care for veterans to veterans who have been discharged within the five preceding years. In addition, the proposal expands military caregiver leave to cover serious injuries or illnesses resulting from the aggravation of a preexisting condition in the line of duty for both active duty service members and covered veterans.
The proposal also extends qualifying exigency leave to include employees whose family members serve in the Regular Armed Forces (in addition to the National Guard and Reserves). Further, the proposal adds the new requirement that the employee’s family member be deployed to a foreign country (this requirement applies to National Guard, Reserves, and Regular Armed Forces members) in order for the employee to qualify for exigency leave.
Airline Flight Crew Amendments
The proposal implements a new special minimum hours of service eligibility requirement for airline flight crew employees. Specifically, airline flight crew employees will meet the hours of service eligibility requirement under FMLA if they have worked or been paid for not less than 60 percent of the applicable total monthly guarantee and have worked or been paid for not less than 504 hours during the 12 months prior to their leave.
The DOL has issued a fact sheet detailing the amendments. Read More.