Recent FMLA Changes
On February 6, 2013, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) published a final rule to implement amendments to the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) made by the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 (NDAA) and the Airline Flight Crew Technical Corrections Act (AFCTCA). The new rule is effective March 8, 2013, and generally only impacts employers with 50 or more employees.
The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 expanded the FMLA’s military caregiver leave and qualifying exigency leave provisions. The amendments extended military caregiver leave to eligible employees whose family members are recent veterans with serious injuries or illnesses, and expanded the definition of a serious injury or illness to include serious injuries or illnesses that result from preexisting conditions. The amendments also expanded qualifying exigency leave to eligible employees with family members serving in the regular armed forces and added a requirement that for all qualifying exigency leave, the military member must be deployed to a foreign country.
The Airline Flight Crew Technical Corrections Act established special FMLA hours of service eligibility for airline flight crew members, such as airline pilots and flight attendants, based on the unique scheduling requirements of the airline industry. Under the amendment an airline flight crew employee will meet the FMLA hours of service eligibility requirement if he or she has worked or been paid for not less than 60 percent of the applicable total monthly guarantee and has worked or been paid for not less than 504 hours during the previous 12 months.
Among other things, the final rules implement:
• the extension of military caregiver leave to eligible family members of
recent veterans with a serious injury or illness incurred in the line of duty;
• a flexible, three-part definition for serious injury or illness of a veteran;
• the extension of military caregiver leave to cover serious injuries or
illnesses for both current service members and veterans that result from
the aggravation during military service of a preexisting condition;
• the extension of qualifying exigency leave to eligible employees
with covered family members serving in the Regular Armed Forces;
• inclusion of a foreign deployment requirement for qualifying exigency
leave for the deployment of all service members (National Guard,
Reserves, Regular Armed Forces);
• the addition of a special hours of service eligibility requirement for airline
flight crew employees; and
• the addition of specific provisions for calculating the amount of FMLA
leave used by airline flight crew employees.
Additionally the DOL issued a new FMLA poster. All covered employers are required to display and keep displayed a poster prepared by the DOL summarizing the major provisions of The (FMLA) and telling employees how to file a complaint. The poster must be displayed in a conspicuous place where employees and applicants for employment can see it. A poster must be displayed at all locations even if there are no eligible employees.
Other changes and updates include:
• Updated Forms: WH-381 / WH-384 / WH-385
• New Form: WH-385-V (for veterans)
If you have further questions with regards to the recent FMLA changes, please contact us by calling 877-352-2121 or reaching out to us by email at beready@clark-mortenson.com.
