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The Benefits of the Family Medical Leave Act

            Imagine being faced with an unexpected medical condition, or a sick child.  Life can be so unpredictable and situations arise especially when we are least expected.  How would your life been changed if the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) law didn’t exist to secure your job during your emergency?  I have experienced firsthand the benefits of using the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA).  I have used this benefit three times first due to illness, and second and third due to my pregnancies.  This benefit was definitely a lifesaver with everything else going on I could rest assured that my job would be protected for at least 12 weeks while I dealt with personal issues.  Becoming sick was beyond my control and it was a very stressful ordeal, my Human Resource Manager introduced me to the FMLA process and eased my mind knowing that I was able to take a leave of absence from work and take care of getting myself better.  FMLA has stipulations and processes but are well worth it to protect your job during extreme situations.

            FMLA is a United States federal law requiring employers to provide eligible employees job-protected and unpaid leave for qualified medical and family reasons.  This act went into law on August 5, 1993.  This law provides 12 workweeks of unpaid leave in a 12 month period for the birth of a child and to care for the newborn child with in one year of birth, the adoption or foster care for a newly placed child, to care for a spouse, child, or parent who has a serious health issue, and a serious health condition such as injury, impairment, or physical or mental condition thatyields the employee from being able to perform the necessary functions of their job description.  This law also covers any qualifying employee, spouse, son, daughter, or parent that currently serves in the military on active duty (https://www.dol.gov/whd/fmla/.)    For the employee to be eligible for these benefits an employee must work for a covered employer, have worked for the employer for a total of 12 months, have worked at least 1250 hours over the previous 12 months, work at a location in the United States or in an territory where at least 50 employees are employed by the employer within a 75 mile radius (https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/legal-and-compliance/employment-law/pages/familyandmedicalleaveactof1993.aspx) . 

            If I had the opportunity to change anything specific about the law it would be to extend the securing of the job from 12 weeks to 1 year.  For the birth of a newborn the law states that the parent can take FMLA to care for the newborn for the first year of life (https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/leave-administration/fact-sheets/family-and-medical-leave/).  Depending on the job after using the 12 weeks of FMLA the job may not be so open for taking additional time after being out for 12 weeks.  My next change would be to make FMLA available immediately to employees upon starting the job instead of needing to work 1250 hours before becoming eligible to use FMLA. As stated before emergency situations arise most times out of our control, and the last issue that needs to be a concern would be making sure you job is secured.  Also, I would make the law available to all employers regardless of the amount of employees employed.  Right now the law states that an employer is covered if they employ 50 employees.  Some businesses are small or family-orientated and employ a small amount of employees, but that doesn’t change the fact that situations arise and most times are out of our control.  Other than these few specifics, I believe the law to be generous and fair and definitely is a stress reliever of knowing your job is secure for whatever time-frame is identified in the law.