Introduction
The family medical leave act, a United State law came into being, at the birth of the Clintons administration in 1993, the law makes available twelve weeks of non-paid leave for employees with family medical health issues (United States Department of Labor, 2010). The family medical leave act protects the employee’s positions within the organization, and makes the positions available to the employees on return from the leave, with all benefits intact. The enactment of the law in 1993 marked an end to about ten years of battle, and legislative maneuvering after it made its first appearance in the chambers.
It all started after the 1984 scraping of a Californian law, which required organizations to provide their female employees with maternity leave. The Californian law was scrapped because it was discriminatory. An attempt at putting into place a law that protected both male and female employees with medical issues gave rise to the family medical leave act (United States Department of Labor, 2010). It was not all bliss; most people had counter views, that the law will place undue demand on businesses.
Before the Passage of the FMLA
Before the passage into law of the act, individual organizations had different policies regarding employees with family medical issues. Below is an example of how some of the issues were treated.
Pregnant Women
In most organizations, pregnant women were given maternity leave shortly before delivery, the pregnant employee’s annual leave was what was used as maternity leave; with a few weeks added to enable her to recuperate fully. After which she was required to resume work within the time specified. By using the annual leave of employees with just a few weeks added to it, the organization lost little to nothing, as it was all arranged in favor of the organization.
Other Employees with Medical issues
Aside from the pregnant employees, other employees with family medical issues were granted leave based on organizational policies. What most organizations were doing before the passage of the FMLA was that, if an employee is sick, he or she will be given some days off to recover and resume work, and the time given to the employee was counted as part of the employee annual leave, but in a situation where such an employee has already gone on leave, it will be deducted from the annual leave of the following year. And in situations where the employee failed to resume within the time frame given to him or her, the employee stood the chance of losing the job, since the absence of such an employee affected the organization (Demedio 2009). And before the passage of the law, grounds for granting leave on a medical basis were limited.
After the Passage of the FMLA
After the passage of the law, granting employees with family medical issues leave is now a right and not a privilege as it was (United States Department of Labor, 2010). Below is an illustration of how the passage has resulted in a switch in organizational policies to accompany the changes.
Pregnant Women
With the passage of the act, aside from their annual leave, a pregnant woman within an organization will have twelve weeks of leave within a year to attend to personal issues. This is in no small measure a burden to the organization, as some organizations will have to hire someone on an interim basis to make up for the long absence of their regular staff, which is an extra cost in terms of training.
Other Employees with Medical Issues
With the passage of the act, which covers a wide range of issues, and reasons for granting leave on medical grounds, organizations will always have to make provisions for supporting staff in case such an issue arises. What this implies is that organizations might subtly discriminate against the employment of so many women within the organization, since most of the eligibility criteria are disposed of more to women. In effect, organizations will miss the services of highly talented employees.
Conclusion
It will be important to note that while the act has a lot of merit on humanitarian grounds, business-wise it is not favorable. A lot of dollars go into servicing unproductive employees, which ordinarily an organization will lay up.
References List
Demedio, W. (2009).This review is from: The Essential Guide to Family & Medical Leave .
United States Department of Labor. (2010).Fact Sheet #28: The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993.
United States Department of Labor.(2010). Fact Sheet #28A: The Family and MedicalLeave Act Military Family Leave Entitlements. Web.
United States Department of Labor. (2010).The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 as amended.