The Employment Law Chronicle

In general, eligible employees are entitled to return to work and maintain their group health benefits. Leave may be taken for the following reasons:

1. birth and care of the employee's child;

2. placement of a child with the employee for adoption or foster care;

3. care by the employee of a child, spouse or parent who has a serious health condition; or

4. care of the employee's own serious health condition

On January 28, 2008, President Bush signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for FY 2008 into law, which amended the FMLA to provide for additional categories of job-protected leave relating to members of the military as follows:

An eligible "spouse, son, daughter, parent, or next of kin” may take up to 26 weeks of leave to care for a member of the Armed Forces, including a member of the National Guard or Reserves, who is undergoing medical treatment, recuperation, or therapy, is otherwise in outpatient status, or is otherwise on the temporary disability retired list, for a serious injury or illness.

FMLA leave may also be taken by eligible employees for "any qualified exigency...arising out of the fact that the spouse, or a son, daughter, or parent of the employee is on active duty (or has been notified of an impending call or order to active duty) in the Armed Forces in support of a contingency operation.” As of the date of this posting, the Department of Labor had not issued regulations defining "qualified exigency," but DOL encourages employers to grant this new category of leave prior to issuance of the such regulations.

For purposes of the FMLA, the term covered employer means public agencies, including state, local and federal employers, local education agencies (schools), and most private-sector employers who employed 50 or more employees in 20 or more work weeks of the current or preceding calendar year.

For purposes of the FMLA, the term eligible employee means an employee of a covered employer who meets the following criteria:

1. has been employed by the employer for at least 12 months;
2. has been employed for at least 1,250 hours of service during the 12-month period immediately preceding the leave; and;
3. is employed at a worksite where the employer employes 50 or more employees withn a 75-mile radius of the worksite.