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Pennsylvania will consider paid leave bills

04/25/2008

In the wake of New Jersey’s recent passage of family leave legislation, more state legislatures are considering bills that would require paid family leave. Fourteen states, including Pennsylvania, will consider mandatory paid family leave this year …

Legislators debate paid family leave bills

04/23/2008

New Jersey has become the third state, following California and Washington, to grant mandatory paid family leave to employees. And it looks like the idea is gaining momentum: 14 states, including North Carolina, will consider mandatory paid family leave in this year’s legislative sessions …

FMLA entitles you to request proof worker’s parent has serious health condition

04/21/2008

Do you routinely accept employees’ claims they need FMLA time off to care for an elderly parent? If so, consider a new policy. While it may be easier to approve leave than to challenge it, blanket approvals may prove costly in the long run as more and more “sandwich generation” employees find themselves having to care for both their children and their elderly parents …

New FMLA military leave: Who can take it?

04/17/2008

Q. Does the new FMLA law for injured soldiers also apply to service members who were injured during past wars? And does the person have to be 100% disabled for their family members to be eligible for leave? — C.T., Missouri …

Must we offer time off as an ADA accommodation?

04/17/2008

Q. We employ fewer than 50 employees. What’s our obligation under the FMLA or the ADA to bring back an employee who has missed lots of work? We want to lay her off. Can we?

Is there such a thing as intermittent childbirth leave?

04/10/2008

Q. We have a question regarding FMLA leave following the birth of a child. One of our employees is pregnant. She has recently immigrated to the United States. She has informed us that she expects to take eight weeks of FMLA leave immediately after the child is born. Then after a few months, she would like to return to her home country to visit with family for a month. In other words, she wants to split up FMLA leave into an eight-week period and a four-week period. Can FMLA leave for a new child be split up in this fashion? …

Consistently applied blanket-Leave limits don’t violate FMLA

04/09/2008

If you’re having absenteeism problems, consider instituting a policy that says an employee who exceeds an absence threshold will be automatically terminated—regardless of the reason. Such a policy can cover absences relating to personal or vacation leave, time off covered by workers’ comp and even FMLA leave …

No light-Duty jobs open when employee returns? You don’t have to retain him

04/07/2008

Sometimes, injured employees use up all the leave their employer or the law allows before they’re ready to return to work. If the employee isn’t disabled as defined by the ADA, you can remove the employee from the payroll. (He may still be eligible for workers’ compensation payments.) …

A good reference for a good worker, even though we fired him?

04/07/2008

Q. We had to fire a good worker because of absenteeism problems. When someone who wants to hire him calls to verify past employment, what can we say about this man? …

Labor Department publishes proposed new FMLA regulations

04/01/2008

On Feb. 11, 2008, the U.S. Labor Department published proposed regulations interpreting the FMLA of 1993. The department also published new draft forms for use in processing FMLA leave requests. Interested parties have until April 11, 2008, to submit comments on the proposed regulations …