In the end Clinton won the election and the bill became law in 1993. But is the FMLA everything it is cracked up to be? According to the Mother Jones (Mencimer, 2008) the law is "incomplete
After the leave period, her employment was terminated due to her continuing inability to work. When Ragsdale petitioned for FMLA leave, she was informed that her previous seven-month incremental leave already fulfilled her FMLA allotment (Bartl and MacDougall)
California, however, has recently passed what could become California's first paid family leave law. The bill is now waiting for a signature or veto from Governor Gray Davis (Bernstein)
Professors who were already burdened with large class sizes could not simply take on the teaching duties of a colleague on leave. On the administrative side, budget constraints kept many universities from hiring temporary help, forcing department managers to take on several additional responsibilities (Campion and Dill)
Since the law was passed, employees have gained significant access to expanded leave without having to worry about job loss. By 2001, an estimated 35 million workers have availed of leaves under the FMLA (Cantor et al
In Illinois, two bills sponsored in recent years have been successfully blocked by the business community. Similar legislation was blocked in 27 states, including New York and New Jersey (DeBaise)
One colleague sniped that she should be allowed to stay home with her dogs. A senior boss warned that taking a month off would have deleterious effects on the father's career (Hansen)
Third, an employee could take a leave to care for sick family members, meaning a spouse, child or parent. Finally, the FMLA allows employees who are ill and unable to work an extended leave period (Jenero and Ketay)
This study maintains that the law resulted in unpredictable absences and lost productivity. The FMLA also exposed employers to potential legal action caused by non-compliance (Leonard)
History The FMLA is one of the most important pieces of labor legislation ever enacted in this country. Though its policies requiring unpaid leave were modest compared to policies in other industrialized nations, this policy had widespread support of powerful unions like the AFL-CIO (Schwartz 9)
Because FMLA leaves may be confused with other leave benefits, Department of Labor Regulations make it the employer's responsibility to inform their workers about the FMLA. Employers were thus mandated to inform their employees if future absences would count towards FMLA-related leave (Sayeed)
Partly for these reasons, many businesses have yet to fully-comply with FMLA provisions, almost a decade after the law was passed. An estimated ten percent of all covered businesses have yet to fully-comply with all the FMLA's provisions (Waldfogel)
Diverse business groups like the Society for Human Resources Management, the National Federation of Independent Businesses and the United States Chamber of Commerce all argued that the law undermined the independence and authority of businesses. Many representatives of small business feared that even unpaid leave would promote high absenteeism and cause significant loss of profit (Zall)