Family Medical Leave Act

Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) passed in 1993, is designed to help both men and women protect their jobs when they need time off from work to do one of the following:

• Care for serious health conditions
• Care for family member health conditions
• Pregnancy
• Care for adopted or foster care child

It helps people focus on their life and not have to worry or stress about their work being in jeopardy.

An unknown person asked a question regarding to Family Medical Leave Act whether the retirement system administrators can change the date of hire if that person was out on medical leave. He/she was ill and out for seventy days and unfortunately, when he/she came back to work that person was informed that their tenure was extended.

Irv Miljoner head of the Long Island, N.Y Office of the US Labor Department said it was legal for demonstrators to lengthen the date of hire because the employer has the right to change an employee’s service time. He also said the tenure can be affected because an employee needs to earn their seniority and by doing that, that person need to be on the job.

I agree that companies should have a choice of extending seniority because I think one needs to earn it. One cannot earn it by staying at home and not doing any work. In some situations, the person may come back early or do some work during their work leave. The main thing is that companies should have a CHOICE because there are many variables that need to be dealt with and everyone have different situations.

I understand and respect why the law permits companies to choose whether an employee takes his/her vacation leave during their FMLA leave. I would think companies would do that to keep their employers working longer for them because it would seem unfair to have the employees off work for a long period of time. On the other hand, it’s unfair for the employees because the reason why they took the leave was because of health issues and because of their sickness they end up loosing their vacation/ personal time.