What protections/rights does the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 provide? What are some conditions and requirements for those using the leaves?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The FMLA covers all private-sector employers with 50 or more employees, including part-timers, who work 1,250 hr over a 12-month period (an average of 25 hr per week). The law gives workers up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave each year for birth, adoption, or foster care of a child within a year of the child’s arrival; care for a spouse, parent, or child with a serious health condition; or the employee’s own serious health condition if it prevents him or her from working. The employer is responsible for designating an absence or leave as FMLA leave, on the basis of information provided by the employee (Rhodes, 2017).
Employers can require workers to provide medical certification of such serious illnesses and can require a second medical opinion. Employers also can exempt from the FMLA key salaried employees who are among their highest paid 10%. However, employers must maintain health insurance benefits for leave takers and give them their previous jobs (or comparable positions) when their leaves are over (McCutchen, 2013). Enforcement provisions of the FMLA are administered by the U.S. Department of Labor. The overall impact of this law was softened considerably by the exemption of some of its fiercest opponents--companies with fewer than 50 employees, or 95% of all businesses.
The FMLA was amended and expanded to include military families in 2008. Businesses are required to offer up to 26 weeks of unpaid leave to employees who provide care to wounded U.S. military personnel. Employers also must provide 12 weeks of FMLA leave to immediate family members (spouses, children, or parents) of soldiers, reservists, and members of the National Guard who have a “qualifying exigency.” While the measure does not define that term, examples could include overseas assignments, recalls to active duty, and troop mobilizations (Leonard, 2008).