module power point

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Running head: BENEFITS

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Benefits

Marion Allen

Deborah Ryan

Healthcare Operations Management

August 6th, 2022

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FMLA versus EEOC

Preventing discrimination based on religion, sex, race, sexual orientation, nationality, ethnicity, etc., is among the top priorities in the U.S. today. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) refers to a federal government agency entrusted with promoting fairness by preventing and outlawing any discrimination in the workplace. It enforces ADA and Title VII (Bordelon, 2022). The laws outlined by the EEOC enfold all kinds of discrimination, including gender, race, age, sexual orientation, and disability. Businesses with at least 15 full-time employees are required to comply with these laws. Besides, organizations with at least 100 employees must file EEO-1 annually, also known as the Employer Information Report. The main goal of the EEOC is to design employment practice policies and to communicate all of these policies to employees (Bordelon, 2022). Based on the EEOC rules, companies must prevent discrimination and harassment, make reasonable accommodations for their employees' disabilities or religious beliefs, and avoid retaliating against workers who file complaints (Mulloy, 2020). Under ADA, an employee is required to return to the same job unless the employer can prove that leaving the job position vacant would generate undue hardship. In some cases, the employee may wish to extend their leave even after an employer communicates that he cannot keep the vacant position further. Thus, the employer must find an alternative job position for the employee. However, if there is no alternative position, even at a lower level, continued accommodation from the employer is not required.

On the other hand, the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) protects the right of an employee to take leave to deal with family or medical emergencies (Gitis & Sprick, 2022). This includes attending to their serious medical condition, taking care of a family member with a severe health condition, or taking some time off after the birth or adoption of a child. The FMLA covers private employers who have at least 50 employees. The FMLA states that an employee who is covered can take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave within 12 months. During this period, the employee's job status is protected, and his health benefits are maintained. Generally, the main aim of FMLA is to provide an employee with a reasonable but limited amount of time to take care of their own or a family member’s health condition without losing their job since the employer must take the employee back into the same or an equivalent position.

EEOC and FMLA have some similarities and differences in terms of leave policy. To begin with, Title VII and ADA cover only private employers with 15 or more employees, whereas FMLA covers private employers with 50 or more employees. However, local and state government employers are covered by both FMLA and ADA despite the number of employees but are covered by Title VII if they have at least 15 employees. It is important to note that not all employees protected by Title VII are eligible for FMLA leave, which depends on various factors such as length of stay and employment by an FMLA-covered employer with more than 50 employees.

Under FMLA, a severe health condition refers to an impairment, illness, or mental or physical condition involving inpatient care or continuous treatment by a healthcare provider. It is not necessarily considered an ADA disability. An ADA disability is an impairment that significantly reduces at least one significant life activity. Generally, under ADA, a person must have a record of an extremely limiting impairment to get covered because having a serious health condition may not suffice. To prove if a person has an ADA disability, all evidence, including all records (medical certifications and recertifications) about whether they have a severe medical condition, should be considered.

Both FMLA and EEOC have law requirements about the leave policy for pregnancy and related conditions (Eaton, 2019). Under EEOC’s laws, if an employer offers short-term disability leave, they must treat the pregnancy and associated conditions like non-pregnancy. For instance, if an employer provides seven weeks for short-term medical conditions, he must also offer seven weeks of paid leave for pregnancy and other related conditions. Pregnant employees must also be allowed to work as long as they can adequately deliver on their assigned tasks. Besides, employees are required to hold a job for a pregnancy-associated absence for the same period that other positions are held open for employees on disability or sick leave.

There are incidences where the leave policy which complies with FMLA can violate the laws administered by EEOC. The EEOC anti-discriminatory laws protect employees regardless of the period they have worked. Still, an employee cannot be covered by FMLA leave until they have been employed for 12 months. Therefore, an event where an employer policy that denied a pregnancy leave during the employee's first year but provided an exit for other health conditions would discriminate against pregnant women in violation of EEOC. Also, a policy that denies employees from taking temporary disability or sick leave in their first year of employment would hurt women and violate EEOC.

Another difference is that under EEOC, employers are not mandated to offer employees leave to take care of themselves or family members but are prohibited against discriminatory practices based on religion, race, color, sex, or nationality when they provide family leave. Under ADA, employers are also required to offer to go on the same terms as they would give other employees who need to take care of an ill patient.

References

Bordelon, R. (2022). Whose Benefits Are They?

Eaton, B. L. (2019). Pregnancy discrimination: Pregnant women need more protection in the workplace. SDL Rev., 64, 244.

Gitis, B., & Sprick, E. (2022). Modernizing FMLA: Reform Options to Expand Employee Coverage and Reduce Employer Burdens. Bottom of Form

Mulloy, S. P. (2020). Accommodating absence: Medical leave as an ADA reasonable accommodation. Michigan Law Review, 118(8), 1629-1654.