labor lawAdivision of labor law center

A significant change to the FMLA regulations affects how employers must track FMLA leave. This is the fourth in a continuing series of articles on the new FMLA regulations issued by the U.S. Department of Labor, which go into effect  on January 16, 2009.

Under the old regulations, an employer had to track FMLA leave using the shortest period of time that their payroll system could track. If the payroll system rounded to the quarter-hour, the employer was required to permit the employee to use 45 minutes of FMLA leave, or 2.25 hours of FMLA leave, on a particular day.

The new FMLA regulations in their entirety can be found in the 201 pages of the November Federal Register.

Under the 2009 regulations, employers may track FMLA leave using the shortest increment that the employer uses to track other forms of leave, such as (more…)

A number of the changes to the FMLA regulations that go into effect in January, 2009, favor the employer. These changes and clarifications were made after the U.S. Department of Labor received comments from employers and input from groups such as the Society of Human Resource Management or SHRM.

Under the new FMLA or Family and Medical Leave Act regulations, employees are entitled to use any paid leave, including sick leave, vacation and personal leave while on FMLA. However, in order to use the leave, the employee must follow the employers usual policy for requesting the paid time off – even if those requirements are more stringent than the FMLA notice requirements.

A major change under the new regulations establishes that employers can deny bonuses, awards or other payments to workers who have not met a specific goal due to FMLA leave.

The new regulations also address a few specialized situations encounted by the U.S. Department of Labor. For example, they permit employers to (more…)