labor lawAdivision of labor law center

An important provision of the new FMLA regulations permits employees to substitute paid leave for unpaid FMLA. This is a major departure from the previous regulations, which permitted an employer to prohibit the use of paid vacation by employees on FMLA.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, an employee can substitute paid leave benefits for unpaid FMLA, as long as the employee follows the employer’s terms and conditions regarding those benefits. (However, the terms and conditions should be previous established, preferably in writing, and must be non-discriminatory.) The employer has a responsibility to inform employees of the terms and conditions of the paid leave policy or policies.

For example, a company may have a policy that paid vacation must be requested in writing at least 4 weeks in advance. When Jennifer goes into labor on January 15, she can immediately take FMLA. However, she will need to comply with the (more…)

The U.S. Department of Labor recently issued regulations concerning the use of military leave and expanded FMLA leave for military caregivers.

Speaking on the release, Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao said, “This final rule, for the first time, gives America’s military families special job-protected leave rights to care for brave service men and women who are wounded or injured, and also helps families of members of the National Guard and Reserves manage their affairs when their service member is called up for active duty.” The Secretary added, “At the same time, the final rule provides needed clarity about general FMLA rights and obligations for both workers and employers.”

The new regulations expand the qualifying family members, for military leave purposes. Traditionally, the FMLA or Family and Medical Leave Act has defined an “immediate family member” as a son or daughter, parent or spouse. Sons and daughters were covered only if they were under the age of 18, or unable to care for themselves. Under the military family leave provision of (more…)

Months after the president signed the NDAA or Military Family Leave Act into law, employers are finally receiving guidelines on how to implement it.

Every employer is required to prominently display a Military Leave Notice in the workplace, under this new law.

The regulations issued by the U.S. Department of Labor go into effect on January 16, 2009 but employers would be wise to implement them now. This is because, unlike the updated FMLA regulations, the Military Family Leave regs are not replacements to existing regulations – they are the first and only regulations on this new type of leave.

Leave under the Military Family Leave Act is an extension of FMLA, or leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act.

An employee may take up to 26 weeks of military caregiver leave during a single 12-month period to care for a soldier injured on active duty. The leave can be taken (more…)

The U.S. Department of Labor just released  a final rule that improves financial reporting, providing union members with more complete information regarding union trusts.

The unstated subtext here is that some union trusts have been mismanaged, allowing unethical union leaders to strip funds, while concealing their actions from rank and file members.

The new union trust reporting rule, which goes into effect on January 1, 2009, requires unions  to annually file Form T-1.  The rule is issued under the authority of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 or LMRDA. One of the goals of the LMRDA is to provide meaningful information about union financias and expenditures.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, not all (more…)

The U.S. Department of Labor has filed a lawsuit on September 25, 2008 against Houston-based CEMEX Inc. for overtime violations. The suit maintains that the company failed to pay $5 million in overtime to more than 2,000 drivers from eight states. The employees were drivers of ready-mix concrete trucks.

CEMEX, founded in Mexico in 1906, provides cement and other building supplies for the construction industry. The company’s website claims it employers more than 60,000 employees in 50 countries on 5 continents.

Affected employees of CEMEX worked in Texas, (more…)