Many members of the military serving our country in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc., do double duty as employees for public and private sector companies. This raises a host of HR issues for them and their family members, as they have taken leave both for military duty and, in some cases, to deal with the impact of service-connected injuries. The result: A variety of new government rules issued to protect servicemembers’ rights, and according to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), another long-awaited rule is right around the corner.
Yesterday, DOL said that employers should expect, in September, proposed regulations implementing qualifying exigency and military caregiver leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Here’s an explanation of these leave types, which were added to the FMLA by the National Defense Authorization Acts of 2008 and 2010:
- Qualifying exigency leave applies when an employee’s spouse, son, daughter or parent is called for deployment to a foreign country, to assist servicemembers’ families in managing their affairs while the covered servicemember is away.
- Military caregiver leave applies to an illness or injury incurred by a covered servicemember or veteran in the line of duty on active duty in the Armed Forces. It also applies to an illness or injury that existed before the start of the member’s active duty that was aggravated by service in the line of duty on active duty, and that may render the member medically unfit to perform the duties of the member’s office, grade, rank or rating.
Employers have been waiting for these rules for almost a year. In the interim, employers should have been granting qualifying exigency and military caregiver leave as per DOL’s general instructions. However, it will likely be nice for employers to have more formal written guidance to fall back on, come September.