BUSINESS LAW

Business Law

Business Law

Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)

FMLA, a bill supported by most labor unions, passed by Congress and signed by President William Clinton in 1993. This bill allows employees working in an organization to take twelve leaves in a year, in order to fulfill the family needs. Those employees in firms of fifty or more employees are legally entitled to say leave to attend to their own “serious health conditions,” or those of a spouse, parent, or child. Leave is also granted for the birth, adoption, or establishment of foster care for a child. Employers must allow employees to return to their senior jobs when their leave expires. The FMLA sets a minimum base and does not override existing employer parental or personal leave policies that go beyond its scope.

The FMLA was bitterly opposed by the business community, which complained that the FMLA would lead to serious declines of productivity, and that it is needless government regulation of the private sector's affairs. Their fears have proved alarmist. If anything, the small number of labor and social activists who complained that the FMLA was too weak has proved more accurate.

The FMLA is very limited when compared with family legislation in other industrialized nations. Some New Zealand employees, for example, entitle to a full year's leave at partial pay to attend to newborns, and nearly every European democracy grants more munificent leave. Moreover, the FMLA has numerous restrictions. To be eligible, employees must worked for minimum 1250 hours during the course of twelve months with the employer from which leave requested. While on leave, employees might be required to pick up their own health-care premiums and are not entitled to seniority rights. The law also allows employers to require periodic reports of their employees' leave status. Some employees have complained they were pressured to return early.

Most critics contend, however, that the biggest shortfall of the FMLA is that leave is unpaid. They contend that most employees cannot sustain three months of wage losses and are thus forced to substitute vacation leave, sick days, and personal days for the FMLA. In addition, the FMLA applies only to larger firms of more than fifty employees, thereby leaving millions of Americans beyond the law's reach.

Despite its limitations, most labor unions hailed the FMLA as an important first step in making American work policies more profanity. U.S department of Labor administered by the Wages and Hours Division. (FMLA, 2007).

Employment opportunities for women

Employment opportunities for women in the United States have been limited by the assumption that women are mothers first and workers second or that working and mothering are incompatible. Differences in the treatment of men and women have been justified on the basis that women are or could become mothers. Women's prominence in the private, domestic sphere created a parallel stereotype in which men were thought not to have domestic responsibilities. Employers denied or discouraged men from taking leaves from work to care for family members, especially ...