Family Medical Leave Act: compliance and implementation strategies

FMLA Summary

The author of this report has been asked to do a summary and review of what has come to be known as FMLA, which is short for the Family Medical Leave Act. Within this report there will be a review and summary of the relevant employment law. There will then be a construction of an overview of the law that includes a rationale for said law, who is affected by the law and other relevant or related information. Third, there will be the proposal of a method, process, system or tool so as to ensure compliance with the selected employment law. Fourth, there will be an explaining of the benchmarking and best practices procedures that could and should be used for the law. Finally, there will be a listing of recommended strategies for healthcare leaders so that organizational compliance with the law can be monitored. While people taking FMLA can be disruptive for a business, allowing people to handle important life situations and events in this manner is the right thing to do for the employee and for society.

Questions Answered

Relevant Employment Law

The real and major piece of the law that could and should be consulted for this section is the law itself. Indeed, the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) was passed as a freestanding and self-sufficient law in 1993. However, the original law actively excluded people that were not legally married under the laws of the states of the Union. This meant that gay couples were excluded even though they were legally married in their state of residence. Beyond that, the law is basically intact from its original manifestation in 1993. The law allows for a person to take up to twelve workweeks of unpaid leave over a twelve-month period for the following reasons:

Birth of a child and this can be done within a year of the child's birth

A child has been placed for adoption with the person taking the leave. As with a biological child's birth, this leave can be taken within one year of the child's birth.

To care for a spouse, child or parent that has a serious health condition

The employee himself/herself has a serious medical condition that needs to be attended to Any qualifying exigency for the employee that involves a family member being on active military duty (DOL, 2016).

It should be noted that not all employees/employer are subject to the FMLA. It only applies to employers who have fifty or more employees in a seventy-five-mile radius. If either of those conditions is not met, the employer does not have to extend the leave. They can do so if they wish but they would need to do so equally and evenly for all like situations just like if they were subject to the law. When an employee returns from FMLA, they must be given their prior position back or one that is equivalent in nature in terms of pay and responsibility (DOL, 2016).

Overview of the Law

The rationale for the law is that people will have situations and life events that preclude them from being able to balance both the event in question and their job at the same time. In other cases, it could just be that the person wants the luxury of being able to take some time off. This would be very common with a new child, adopted or biological. The employee is affected by the law because he/she is allowed to time off, albeit unpaid. The employer is affected in that they will have to cover the temporary loss of the employee and they will have to offer the person their same job (or one that is similar) back to them when they return (Meyer, 2016).

Benchmarking & Best Practices

The benchmarking and best practices for this situation are not all that difficult but it is important that they be followed. All paperwork and details of the leave including start date, stop date, reason for the leave and so forth must be in place. There should be absolutely no retaliation or ill events levied towards the person as this could and should be viewed as retaliation for taking leave that is mandated by law. When the employee comes back, they should be given their prior position if at all possible but an equivalent one will do if business necessity required that the employee's position not be left open (DOL, 2016).

Executive Summary

When it comes to adhering to and following the FMLA, it would be wise for there to be contingency and risk-related plans to deal with what will happen if someone were to take leave, depart the company or even pass away. It also has to be planned for to keep in mind that the employee's position and pay must be restored upon completion. Whether there be a stop-gap solution or a more permanent one, the business needs and compliance requirements of the situation all have to be met concurrently. The legal counsel or lawyer for a healthcare firm should be involved in this planning process so that no appearance of non-compliance or retaliation is perceived (BLR, 2016).

Conclusion

While some suggest that the amount of unpaid leave made available to workers be more than it is now and/or that it be paid, the FMLA framework is good in that it allows people to address important things in their life without losing their job. At the same time, the employer is not paying someone that is not working or being productive for the firm. There are situations where taking unpaid leave is simply not an option but yet there are situations where leave is really called for. The best solution to that confluence is not clear yet but the FMLA is a good start.