labor lawAdivision of labor law center

Employers throughout the U.S. are carefully watching what is happening these days in the District of Columbia.

D.C. has approved a controversial new act known as the Accrued Sick and Safe Leave Act of 2008, which essentially requires employers to provide paid sick leave to their workers. The act may be the harbinger of paid sick leave elsewhere, and has become an important topic among HR professionals.

Employees who would be eligible are those who, first of all, spend at least 50% of their work time in the District of Columbia. They must also have accumulated a year of continuous service and at least 1,000 hours of work in the previous 12 months, under the proposed act.

The new law is quite broad. Employers would be required to give paid sick leave to any of these eligible employees for any absences connected with (more…)

On November 17, 2008, the U.S. Department of Labor published final updates to regulations for the FMLA, or federal Family and Medical Leave Act.

The updated regulations will require every employer to display a new 2009 FMLA poster. Employers can preorder the new FMLA poster here. These updated FMLA regulations go into effect on January 17, 2009.

This is in addition to the new 2009 USERRA poster and EEOC poster required for all employers. Most employers should display the posters in Spanish, as well as English.

The new regulations concern three major areas: 

• Update the FMLA regulations to address a number of problems reported by employees and employers
•  Address some conflicts between the U.S. Department of Labor FMLA regulations and decisions by the courts
•  Provide guidelines and regulations for employers granting extended FMLA to military families as required under the required Military Leave Notice.  

 According to Victoria A. Lipnic, Assistant Secretary for the Employment Standards Administration, these changes have been carefully weighed.

“This common sense, balanced rule is the product of a two year-long transparent process involving about 20,000 public comments and reflects the careful consideration of the views of FMLA stakeholders,” said Victoria Lipnic.

For most employers, the new FMLA regulations address these issues: 

• Reporting absences
• Right of individuals to waive FMLA
• Employer liability
• Light duty
• Perfect attendance awards 

Under the new regulations, (more…)