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E-Alerts

Inviting Your Input on How to Improve the FMLA Regulations

The United States Department of Labor (“DOL”) is seeking public comment on how to improve its Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”) regulations.  Schwartz Hannum PC will be preparing and submitting comments to the DOL and, accordingly we invite input from you, our friends and clients, concerning how the FMLA regulations can be revised to work better for you.  Although the DOL welcomes comments on any aspect of the FMLA regulations, specific areas of interest include:

  • Whether and how to combine non-consecutive periods of employment for purposes of meeting the requirement that an employee work for 12 months before becoming eligible for FMLA leave;
  • Whether an employee should be eligible for FMLA leave after working for 1,250 hours, one of the eligibility criteria, even if the employee would not satisfy the requirement of having worked for 12 months until after the leave commences;
  • Whether, as a general rule, FMLA eligibility criteria should be determined as of the date the leave request is made, or as of the date the leave is to commence;
  • How to apply the threshold for FMLA coverage, i.e., that an employer have 50 workers within 75 miles, to situations where the employee is jointly employed by two or more employers or works from home;
  • Whether and how to clarify when a minor illness becomes a “serious health condition” that qualifies the employee for FMLA leave;
  • Whether the requirement that a serious health condition persist for “more than three consecutive calendar days” should be construed to mean four days or three days and any part of the fourth day;
  • Whether and how to clarify the portions of the regulations permitting the substitution of paid vacation and personal leave for unpaid FMLA leave; and
  • Whether and how to clarify the procedures for responding to a request for FMLA leave, including the procedures for obtaining medical certifications, recertifications and fitness-for-duty statements.

Please let us know if you have any comments or concerns that you would like us to consider for inclusion in our submission to the DOL.  In this regard, the DOL’s deadline for submissions is February 2, 2007, so please be sure to share any comments on or before January 31, 2007.

We look forward to hearing back from you, as this is an unusual opportunity to help shape federal regulations that have a direct and significant impact on your workplace.