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Family Medical Leave Act: Important Changes Take Effect March 8
New Department of Labor regulations that go into effect on Friday, March 8, 2013, make a number of small but important changes to the Family Medical Leave Act landscape. One change that will affect employers is the requirement to post an updated required FMLA poster. The new poster can be downloaded here. A number of FMLA forms, mostly those pertaining to military leave (WH-385-V, WH-381, WH-384 and WH-385) also have been updated and are available on the DOL website.
Another significant provision of the new regulations: Employees on intermittent FMLA may not be required to use more leave time than necessary and must be permitted to track intermittent FMLA leave in one-hour increments (or the smallest increments used by the employer to track other forms of leave, whichever is smaller).
Additional changes to the new regulations include:
- Broadening of the applicability of the military exigency, military caregiver and injured veteran leave provisions
- Clarifications of the rarely-used FMLA provisions pertaining to airline flight crews
- Confirming that any genetic information received by an employer as part of the FMLA process must be protected from disclosure in accordance with Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (“GINA”)
A summary of the changes to the DOL regulations can be found on the
DOL website. If you have any questions about the FMLA or any other state or federal employment laws or regulations, please contact Glenn Israel at gisrael@bernsteinshur.com or 207 774-1200.