Describe who is covered by the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of 1993.
The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) is a federal law that requires larger employers to provide employees protected unpaid leave due to serious health conditions that limits the employee’s ability to perform their job, time to care for a sick family members, or to care for a new child, which includes birth, adoption and/or foster care.
Explain the extent to which an employer can make his or her own determination as to the eligibility of an employee under the Family and Medical Leave Act.
Prior to the provision of leave for family or medical reasons was left to the discretion of each individual employer. Unfortunately, many employees would make the request for leave could be or would be denied without explanation and/or just cause. Ultimately, the employees could be fired for taking family and medical leave. When changing jobs, even within the same company, there was not a level of consistency for their requests, as no foundation was set to follow as a guideline. Few employers who had formal leave policies, which they applied uniformly to their workforces while many others had informal policies and the granting of leave was dependent on the circumstances presented or personal interpretations attached.
For employees to qualify for FMLA benefits, a employee must work for a business with fifty or more employees within seventy-five miles of their worksite, or a public agency; however, the fifty employee threshold does not apply to public agencies or local educational agencies. They must also have been employed with the business for at least 12 months and this does not have to be consecutive or 1,250 hours within the last 12 months.
Moreover, the FMLA mandates unpaid, job-protected leave for up to 12 weeks a year for the care of a new child, regardless if for the birth or the adoption/placement of a child within foster care; to care for a seriously-ill family member;...