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@079 CHAP 9
┌───────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ FEDERAL AND STATE FAMILY LEAVE LEGISLATION │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Congress has attempted twice since 1990 to enact a paren-
tal and family leave act. Twice, such legislation passed
in Congress (in 1990 and 1992), but was vetoed successfully
both times by President Bush. One of the first acts of the
new Democratic Administration was to get a family and medi-
cal leave bill passed in Congress again. This time, the
bill was immediately signed into law by President Clinton,
on February 5, 1993.
The new law applies to all companies with 50 or more employ-
ees within a 75-mile radius (including non-profit entities).
This means that companies that employ about half of all
employees in the U.S. are subject to the family leave law
requirements.
It provides that covered employers are required to:
. Offer their employees 12 weeks of unpaid leave after
the birth or adoption of a child; to care for a seri-
ously ill child, spouse or parent; or for an employee's
own serious illness;
. Maintain health care coverage for an employee who is on
a leave of absence as described above; and
. Guarantee that employees will be able to return to
either the same job or to a comparable position after
the leave.
A serious illness must be verified by a physician's certi-
fication, and the employer may require a second medical
opinion if desired. An employee is required to provide
the employer 30 days' notice for foreseeable leaves of ab-
sence for a birth, adoption, or planned medical treatment.
One major exception to the law's coverage is a provision
that exempts certain "key" employees from coverage. For
this purpose, "key employees" are defined as the highest-
paid 10% of the employer's work force and those whose
leave of absence would cause significant economic harm
to the employer. Also exempted from the law's provisions
are employees who haven't worked at least one year and
who haven't worked at least 1250 hours, or 25 hours a
week, in the preceding 12 months.
Employers are given the option of substituting an employee's
accrued PAID leave for any part of the 12-week period of
family leave.
@CODE: CA
CALIFORNIA FAMILY LEAVE REQUIREMENT
As usual, Congress seems to have been following in the
footsteps of the California legislature, which had recent-
ly adopted its own family leave law.
Effective since January 1, 1992, California businesses
that employ 50 or more workers are required to grant un-
paid leaves of absence to employees with new children --
whether newborn or adopted -- or for the purpose of caring
for a sick child, parent, or spouse. The California
Family Rights Act of 1991 provides for leaves of up to 16
weeks every two years. Employees already entitled to 4
months of pregnancy leave under California law may take
an additional month to care for a newborn child.
Under the Family Rights Act, if need for such a leave is
foreseeable, the employee must give the employer reasonable
advance notice and, where possible, must make reasonable
efforts to schedule the leave to avoid disruption of the
employer's operations. An employer may require, or the
employee may choose, to apply accrued vacation or other
accrued paid or unpaid leave time to the family leave.
Employees may NOT use sick leave during the leave period
unless both the employer and employee agree to it.
During the period an employee is taking family leave, he or
she is entitled to continue to participate in health plans,
retirement plans and supplemental unemployment benefit
plans of the employer, if any; but the employer may require
the employee to pay health insurance premiums at the group
rate and need not contribute to retirement plans for the
employee during the leave period.
Upon returning from such a leave, the employee is entitled
to the same or a comparable position as prior to the leave.
An employer is not required to grant leave in certain situ-
ations, such as the following:
. where the child's other parent is also taking
family leave or is not employed;
. where the employee is one of the five highest paid
employees, or among the top 10% of employees, in
terms of gross salary; or
. where the leave, if granted, would result in undue
hardship to the employer's operations.
@CODE:OF
@CODE: HI
HAWAII FAMILY LEAVE REQUIREMENTS
Recent Hawaii legislation (1991), which preceded the new
federal family leave law, requires companies with 100
or more employees to provide a total of 4 weeks per year of
"family leave" upon the birth or adoption of a child, or to
care for a child, spouse or parent with a serious health
condition. The leave can be paid or unpaid, or a combina-
tion of both. Leave time may not be accumulated from year
to year. Employees must have been on the job 6 months to
be eligible for such leave. The employer or employee may
elect to use accrued sick leave or vacation time as part
of the mandated family leave.
@CODE:OF