(And no, we’re not talking about Bernie in sales.) Your #1 on-the-job headache is most likely something relating to employee leaves. Are we right? Intermittent leaves. Baby-bonding leaves. Medical leaves. And bogus leaves—probably your very least favorite thing of all.
The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) has been called “HR’s #1 Headache,” and it’s easy to see why. While celebrating family values (even the law’s acronym, “FMLA,” has the sound of “family” in it), it can contribute mightily to instability in the workforce.
This is a law that allows your workers to be absent from the job for nearly a quarter of the year. Its granting of leave to bond with a new child has widespread application. And while the law’s authors may have intended that workers take weeks at a time of FMLA leave, the statute’s “intermittent leave” provision lets them request whatever time periods they feel they need. One attorney, whose firm bills in 6-minute increments, demanded 6-minute FMLA leaves. The courts upheld her right to have them.
The bottom line is that FMLA and its California counterpart, the California Family Rights Act (CFRA), are here to stay. And it’s your job to understand how they work.
“How best to explain the rules to HR professionals?”
For as long as there have been family leave laws on the books, information providers like ERI have grappled with the issue of how best to explain the rules to HR professionals in a comprehensive, yet comprehensible, way.
There’s a lot to explain—including the laws’ complex interactions with other major laws, including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and workers’ compensation. And California law, as always, adds yet another layer of complexity.
Here at ERI, the result was our HR Management and Compliance Report, How To Comply with California and Federal Leave Laws. The title was a slam-dunk. The rest was not.
In the end, our editors decided to handle explaining the law this way:
No legalese, please! First and foremost was to honor a principle that’s been part of the culture here since the dawn of time (1991, in our case). That was to write the entire work in plain English. We write for managers, not lawyers.
Break it down. Second, we had to slice this massive area of the law into bite-sized pieces. One example: Provide an overview of both the California and federal leave laws before getting into the nitty-gritty of each. State-specific rules are explained throughout, to be better seen in context.
Explain all the component parts. Our editors decided to explain the law in manageable sections: Required notices. Employee notifications. Responding to leave requests. And so on.
Walk through the interactions. The report explains how family law intersects with other leave laws on the books, including ADA and workers’ comp.
One-stop shopping. Our experience with HR professionals shows that they overwhelmingly want “one-stop shopping” on compliance issues. Everything you need to know about state and federal leaves is right here in this one report.
Dealing with FMLA/CFRA – An Ongoing Need
Change is a compliance constant. Legislative revisions, agency and court decisions, and case study experience all modify what you need to know about any given law.
For that reason, when you order How To Comply with California and Federal Leave Laws, you’ll receive an updated edition each year—so you can always be sure that you’re in compliance with whatever changes the law brings.
Get your free copy of Notice Requirements for CFRA and FMLA: California Labor Laws now!