One of the benefits of including domestic partners in company benefit packages is that it helps to boost the moral of the employees who work at the company. Employees who are in domestic partnerships and work side by side with married couples performing the same jobs, but are excluded from benefits for their families have a hard time keeping their company morale up (Horowitz, 2003)
Recently California introduced and passed legislation that provides for domestic partners to receive identical benefits that traditional couples receive from their workplace. This includes life insurance, FMLA provisions, and other benefits normally provided to married couples and their families (Mayes, 2003)
But not all individuals carry the same psychic costs. Those with families will have greater psychic costs of working because indeed they have more utility to forego by working (Allen, 1996, p
Full time is defined as an employee who has worked for the company for at least 12 months and for at least 1250 hours during the previous 12-month period. The FMLA requires the employer to allow the employee to return to the same job or a job of equal position with equivalent pay (BBP, 2004, p
For example, an employee with a serious health condition may take continuous leave for three weeks, then return to work on a part-time basis for several months and take intermittent leave for regularly scheduled medical appointments. Each time increment taken as part of leave covered by FMLA must be recorded and counted as part of the employee's 12-week allowance (Charlet & Kimberly, 1994, p
Today, the idea of guaranteed leave seems obvious, but now, we face a new and equal challenge: making that hard won leave a possibility for all Americans. In the 21st century, working families should not have to give up the leave they earned because they cannot afford it they deserve paid leave (Dobb, 2008, p
However, many business groups protested that the law, which allows employees at companies with 50 or more workers up to 12 weeks' unpaid leave to care for himself or herself, a newborn, a newly adopted child, or a seriously ill family member -- would exact an unfairly heavy toll from employers. Years later, the FMLA remains controversial: Some argue it is too broad in scope, others that it is not broad enough (Kruger, 1998, p
Since its inception in 1993, employers have found FMLA certification, administration, tracking, and compliance confusing and problematic. Employers have argued that the law's ambiguous language makes it hard to certify, track, and administer leave, particularly intermittent leave (Reinberg, 2004)
One way this could be accomplished is to pay employees who take leave a portion of their full wages, and deduct this amount from their wages upon their return to work. This could be a win-win solution (Roog, Knight, Koob, & Kraus, 2004, pp
) discussed research conducted, the research concluded that there were in fact problematic issues with FMLA stating that the act has lead to misinterpretation, noncompliance, and, ultimately, litigation. The research found not only that employers and employees are misinterpreting the FMLA's intent but also that courts at all levels have had their share of interpretations, which appear to differ or contradict regulatory intent (Rose, n
The 1996 report also pointed to some problems and limitations. Among the most important were the following (Waldfogel 2001, p
It is commonly seen in organizations that they cut the medical benefits of employees who are on leave so FMLA offers protection to employees and guarantees employees that they can take family and medical leave up to 12 weeks in a year. Every employee has some family responsibilities so FMLA helps employees to take time off from work to fulfill their family responsibilities (Asher, and Lenhoff, 2001) Eligibility In order to get FMLA benefits and to become eligible for FMLA, employees must have one year experience of working in the same organization and must worked 1250 hours for that organization
If employees have short-term illness then they are not eligible to take leave as well as they are ineligible to take leave for routine medical checkup. It is the responsibility of HR department of the organization to follow the FMLA guidelines (Brody, and Brito, 2007)
Since 1993, there have been numbers of changes proposed in this Act such as lowering the establishment size of the organization, increasing the number of reasons for leave, enhancing the definition of serious health conditions, restraining the use of irregular leave to give benefit to employers, increasing the duration of leave etc. But none of these changes have yet been implemented (Galinsky, Bond, Sakai, Kim and Giuntoli, 2008)
Recently, several countries have made adjustments in FMLA and they now allow employees to take unpaid leave so that they can attend their children educational activities. And some of the states are also planning to enhance this Act even further that employees can also take unpaid leaves for routine checkup of their family (Williams, 2010)
The employee is affected by the law because he/she is allowed to time off, albeit unpaid. The employer is affected in that they will have to cover the temporary loss of the employee and they will have to offer the person their same job (or one that is similar) back to them when they return (Meyer, 2016)