How well do you know the protections of the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA)? I hope you are brushing up on them (or have our number handy), because the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) of the Department of Labor (DOL) recently released a friendly, easy-to-understand Employee Guide (1,2) entitled "Need Time? The Employee's Guide to the FMLA" to help employees thoroughly understand their rights under the FMLA.
The Guide is written in plain English and is designed to help employees across a variety of sophistication levels avail themselves of their rights under the FMLA. It explains various types of serious health conditions that may qualify for FMLA leave, discusses very generally the types of military family leave, explains what in loco parentis status means (any child an employee has day-to-day care and financial support obligations for, regardless of legal relationship), and includes a number of flow-charts to help employees understand when their rights to leave, the certification process, reinstatement, and how to file a complaint if the employee is concerned his/her rights have been violated. The website also includes a link to a webinar on the FMLA given on June 27, which walked through the Employee Guide and explained the high points of the FMLA.
Any citizen understanding his or her rights under the law is not a bad thing. But for an unprepared employer, an employee who has even a cursory understanding of his rights under the FMLA, can be a dangerous thing. If you haven't looked at your obligations under the FMLA, now is a good time. The WHD has made it very easy for an employee to understand his rights and file a complaint if you don't. However, the Employee's Guide, particularly the flow-charts, can be used by employers to confirm that both the employer and employee have fulfilled all their respective obligations under the Act. For example, the certification process is often confusing for employees and employers alike. The Employee Guide provides a simple, step-by-step on pages 12-13 that will help employers confirm they are getting the right information at the right time.
At a minimum, employers should consider this basic guide to be how the DOL perceives the FMLA should work, and should adjust their behavior accordingly. While the employee may not follow the lyrics of the Rolling Stones tune exactly, e.g., "you'll come running back," a smart employer wants to be prepared and will know its obligations under the FMLA so it can explain to the employee along the way that while "you can't always get what you want, if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need."
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