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01.01.2009 Newsletters Doerner

Employment: Family and Medical Leave Act

Last spring, we saw the law expand to provide Military Caregiver Leave and Qualifying Exigency Leave related to military service. In November, the Department of Labor gave us hundreds of pages of new regulations. But, do not rest upon the belief that this will be the end of it for awhile. There are a couple of bills which might get some attention from the new Congress and Administration.

The Healthy Families Act requires employers with 15 or more employees to provide up to seven days paid leave for the illness of the employee or family member. While this bill has been mostly inactive, certainly it is not off the books.

The Family Leave Insurance Act would require that employers providing FMLA leave make the first eight weeks paid.

The Crime Victims Employment Leave Act, sponsored by incoming Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, would provide that the FMLA also cover leave for victims of violent crime and domestic violence and immediate family members of violent crime and domestic violence to attend court proceedings related to such crimes.

Although we cannot predict how the FMLA will change, rest assured it will.

By Kristen L. Brightmire at kbrightmire@dsda.com

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