Various incidents happen in a person's life wherein his/her family is involved. There are times when these incidents will require much of that person's time as well as attention. When this happens, he/she will not be able to do the things that he/she normally does, specifically going to work. To address this issue, the Family and Medical Leave Act was created and implemented.



What is the Family and Medical Leave Act?

The family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is a law administered by the U.S. Department of Labor that obliges employers who have 50 or more employees to grant employees with leave for some family and medical reasons.

Employees who are covered by this ac must provide or grant an employee who is eligible, up to 12 working weeks of leave, which is unpaid due to reasons:

?to take care of an immediate family member who has a serious health condition

?for the birth as well as care of an employee's newborn child

?placement of the son or daughter of the employee for foster care or adoption

?to take medical leave in the event that the employee is not able to work due to a serious health condition that he/she have

Before an employee will be allowed to take a certain number of days off, a notice wherein the intention of asking for a family and medial leave is stated, must first be given.

It is important that the employees inform their employers if they are planning to take a leave because the absence of employees in their workplace for 12 weeks can cause devastating results in the company.

Recognizing this problem, the FMLA obliges employees to inform the company or the employers 30 days prior to date when the leave will start if it is foreseeable. These foreseeable incidents include adoption, a surgery that was scheduled in advanced, and a child's birth.

Who are required to Provide Leave?

Not all employers are required by law to provide their employees with unpaid leave if certain instances that were mentioned beforehand occurred. In addition, there are also certain requirements that employees should have attained before they become eligible for that certain leave.

The FMLA can be applied to the employees and the company if certain conditions are attained:

?The employer has 50 or more employees working in a 75-mile radius who are on the company's payroll, whether these employees only work for part time or on leave.

?the employee has rendered work or service to the company for about 1,250 hours, or 25 hours per week, during the 12 month period prior to the leave

?the employee who is seeking for a leave has been working for the company for the period of at least 12 months

Conditions in the FMLA

An employee in entitled to have an unpaid leave if the conditions formerly stated are met. However, when the period of their leave is over, employers may not give or reinstate the employee his/her former position or job because of the two reasons:

?the employee would have been fired by the employer if the former is not on leave

?employers have the liberty not to reinstate employee who are highly paid

Importance of the FMLA

Through the FMLA, employees are given the time they need to concentrate on important family matters that they have. Except for the conditions in the act, all other workers are assured that they will still have a job or something to return to after a certain incident in their lives has ended.