In frenzied tone she says that she had to rush your aged widowed mother to the hospital and maybe she has had a heart attack. Doctors have assured, the neighbor continues, that she is out of danger, but will need to spend some time in the hospital and she will now need looking after as she will no more be able to tend to her basic needs by herself.
A gamut of emotions rush through your mind, prime amongst them being, who will look after Mom in the hospital.
You then breathe a sigh of relief, remembering that you are covered by the FMLA, the Family and Medical Leave Act, which will allow you to spend considerable time with your mother, safe in the knowledge that you will not lose your job, in spite of being away from it.
What Does The FMLA Cover?
The FMLA Act establishes minimum national values and rights to unpaid leave for employees with health problems, sick family members, or for employees who are giving birth to or adopting children.
This Bill was signed into law, by President Bill Clinton in 1993, and it mandates allowing eligible American workers to take up to twelve workweeks of unpaid leave during any 12-month period for one or more of the following reasons:
- If an immediate family member is seriously ill, more specifically, a wife or husband, mother or father or your son or daughter and you have to look after them.
- If you yourself have a serious health condition and need to take care of yourself.
- The birth of a child and to care for the newborn child within one year of birth.
- The placement with the employee of a child for adoption or foster care and to care for the newly placed child within one year of placement.
- Any qualifying exigency arising out of the fact that the employee's spouse, son, daughter, or parent is a covered military member on "covered active duty."
Assuming that you were also covered by the employer, under employer group health insurance coverage, your employer would also have to maintain that.
Employees and Employers Viewpoint
This law is however, not flawless and both the employers and the employees find fault with it.
From the employers' point of view, only those organizations that employ 50 or more employees fall under the FMLA; organizations with less than 50 employees are exempted from its edicts. However, it seen that many smaller organizations voluntarily accept to be under the act.
Actually there is not too much to worry for the workers who work in smaller organizations because the official ruling for the FMLA to apply is as follows:
"Employees are eligible for leave if they have worked for their employer at least 12 months, at least 1,250 hours over the past 12 months, and work at a location where the company employs 50 or more employees within 75 miles. Whether an employee has worked the minimum 1,250 hours of service is determined according to FLSA principles for determining compensable hours or work."
Employers believe that many employees have misused the law by feigning serious health conditions. There have been umpteen times when employers have granted leave under FMLA, out of fear of violating DOL interpretations of the law, knowing full well that the leave requests were not justifiable.
The FMLA defines a serious health condition as a sickness or injury that requires hospitalization or regular treatment by a medical practitioner. Any illness or injury that makes an employee incapable of returning to work and doing his job is labeled as a serious health condition.
Sadly, it seems the lacunae in the law enable employees to present simple ailments like sprained ankles, common colds and fevers as serious medical conditions and avail of FMLA, which employers sometimes derisorily refer to as the national sick-leave policy.
in spite of the various point of view expressed by both the employees and the employers, it is law and being used widely. Between 1999 and 2000, almost 24 million US workers took leave under the FMLA.
