This week, 20 years after the Family and Medical Leave Act was initially enacted, its protections were expanded for military families and airline flight crews.
The final rule, handed down on Wednesday, extends the availability of FMLA leave to family members of the men and women serving in the Regular Armed Forces for qualifying circumstances arising out of the service member’s foreign deployment.
It also extends FMLA military caregiver leave to family members of certain veterans with serious injuries or illnesses incurred or aggravated in the line of duty, if the veteran was a member of the Armed Forces at any time during the five years preceding the date of medical treatment, recuperation or therapy.
The final rule also establishes new FMLA leave eligibility hours requirements for airline flight crewmembers and flight attendants, authorizing the Department of Labor to issue regulations providing a method of calculating leave for these employees and recordkeeping requirements for their employers.
For more information, a PDF of the amendments is available here.
These new regulations will become effective as of March 8, 2013.
If you have questions about your rights or responsibilities under the revised Family and Medical Leave Act, contact an experienced Minneapolis employment law attorney at LeBlanc Law & Mediation at 612-819-9652.
