Breaking News: New FMLA Regs Released Today
The Department of Labor today released new Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) regulations, the first major overhaul of the law in more than a decade.
The new regs go into effect January 16, 2009. I’ll publish a more detailed review after scrutinizing all 700+ pages, but here are the highlights.
Among other things, the new regs:
- clarify the multiple definitions of “serious health condition”;
- provide guidance on the recent military leave additions to the FMLA, including how family members may take leave to care for wounded service members;
- extend (generally) the employer’s period to give notice of FMLA leave rights from two to five business days;
- require employees to give notice of the need for FMLA leave in accordance with the employer’s normal attendance rules, absent unusual circumstances (under the old rules, employees had up to two business days to give notice);
- specify that only health care providers, leave administrators, HR professionals and management officials (but never direct supervisors) may contact an employee’s health care provider regarding medical certification;
- require employers to provide written notice of any incomplete medical certification and to give employees seven calendar days to provide the additional information;
- allow recertification every 12 months for conditions lasting more than one year and every 6 months for ongoing conditions in conjunction with an absence;
- allow employers to require fitness-for-duty evaluations where an employee’s return from intermittent leave could pose safety concerns;
- allow employers to exclude employees who took FMLA leave from perfect attendance awards;
- treat all forms of paid leave the same in allowing employees to use accrued paid time off as a substitute for unpaid FMLA leave (the old rules treated vacation and personal time different from sick leave);
- clarify that light-duty assignments don’t count toward FMLA leave and that job reinstatement rights continue during such assignments or until the end of the twelve-month period;
- acknowledge that employees may settle FMLA claims without prior government or court approval but may not prospectively waive FMLA rights; and
- reject court cases invalidating certain penalty provisions and provide that employers may be liable if failure to provide notice does harm to an employee.
To download all 700+ pages of the new regs, here’s the official link: http://www.federalregister.gov/OFRUpload/OFRData/2008-26577_PI.pdf
Stay tuned for more.
