It’s been a busy few days for HR! The US Department of Labor (DOL) has issued new regulations expanding upon the Family Medical Leave Act for its twentieth birthday.
The DOL’s website provides you with all the detail here and a “Side-by-Side Comparison of Current/Final Regulations” is here (this should be helpful in revising your policies).
A quick summary of all of this is:
- New FMLA Posting – This is required to be posted by 3/8/13 at each establishment where you have 50+ employees in the US, including locations where there are no eligible employees.
- New Forms (4 of the 7) – Samples are available on the DOL website and the forms are optional, however, the scope of your inquiry is limited to the type of information on the form so why reinvent the wheel.
- Tracking Intermittent Leave – Use the smallest increment of time used for your company’s other types of leaves and in no case use an increment larger than one hour, even if your PTO policies require use of the benefit in larger increments such as half day or full day.
- Military Exigency Leave – Employees who take FMLA to assist their parent, spouse, or child who has been deployed can only do this when the deployment is to a foreign country. Time off to be with the military member who is on R&R is expanded from five to 15 days. Leave to care for the military family member’s parent who is incapable of self-care has been added.
- Military Caregiver Leave – Definitions for “serious injury or illness” and “covered servicemember” have been expanded.
- Airline Flight Crews – The rules changed to reflect the realities of the hours worked by flight crews.
- Adult Children With Disabilities – The definition of “disability” has been expanded to be in sync with the ADAAA of 2008.
As always, if you have any questions at all, please be sure to contact your Sr Associate at The Hopkins Group.
