Research & Writing
Should the Family and Medical Leave Act Be Changed?
The Family and Medical Leave Act was implemented over 2 decades ago as a means to protect children and ensure effective child rearing in families all over America. The Family and Medical Leave Act permits 12 weeks of unpaid leave for workers to allow them to attend to any serious medical condition, care for a new child in the family and give care to any member of the family that is seriously ill (Dol.gov, 2015; The Atlantic, 2013). The policy had provided a great deal of support to families who needed time to care for their loved ones or to recover from serious ailments. It is the however high time that we look to improve the Act and make it more suited to cater to the needs of the present day employee and family member. This is because the policy was not initially drawn up to last us through the long term and no improvements have been made to the Act since he was passed in initially. So because the present day workforce consists mostly of men and women who are singlehandedly parenting their off-springs, the Act should be altered to provide more benefit to these employees in terms of job security as well as in terms of pay.
It is imperative to note that the Family and Medical Act is the sole legislation that is focused on assisting workers in the management of their responsibility while at home and work. The changes in the society and the role of parents have created a number of challenges for parents. Parents are rarely in the position to stay at home and care for their children because of the changes in the economic structure of the country. More often, single parent family do not allow for parents to stay at home, and this leaves the parents with the problem of having to try to balance work and taking care of the family especially when illness and new birth occurs in the family. While employers offer medical and family leave under the state’s legislation policy to employees, the amount of time is not enough to allow families to recuperate fully after illness, childbirth or caring for those who are sick in the family. Therefore, the Family and Medical needs to be revised to accommodate parents who need additional time to care for self and family and still be paid.
The Family and Medical Act currently caters to persons who can afford additional help in the homes when they have to return to work within three months of childbirth, intense illnesses of self and families. For this period, the employees are not paid while attending to the particular medical condition. The problem, however, is that some employers do not understand of the fact that some persons may require extended periods of time to recover. These employees need additional time but cannot afford to stay at home without pay. This action can lead to additional medical challenges and more severe illnesses
In addition, the increase in the number of single mothers does not allow for parents to stay at home for more than the specified time under the law as this can result in loss of jobs and loss of income. The economic crisis in the world places a strain on every country and, therefore, it is difficult to get jobs. Persons who have jobs will not want to lose these jobs, but at the same time, the physical illnesses compounded with the mental and emotional distress of any impending jobs lose complicates the situation and employers will have to contend with unfit workers who may just collapse on the job. Therefore, changes in the Family and Medical Act will allow for the holistic healing of employees and more effective production on the job.
The Family and Medical Leave Act represents the first legislation that Clinton signed into law, as president. Consequently, he utilized the bill to demonstrate the priorities of his government, with him as president. After Clinton took over the president’s office in 1993, there was an evident change in the structure and government priority with regard to family development. There were numerous single mothers that constituted over 50% of the parents in America. Therefore, over half of the mothers in America participated in the rearing of the family. The number of working mothers has increased over the years. This eliminated the days when there was a full-time caregiver; for this reason, the government had to adopt to reflect the emerging trends.
The fight for the adoption of Family and Medical Leave Act began over a decade before its implementation. It was created by the national-level family law. It is integral to note that the Family and Medical Leave Act was drafted during the reign of President Regan, and later passed by the congress. However, George Bush declined to sign the bill into law. There were ongoing debates to increase the allowed time for unpaid leave for workers that had an active role in providing care to their family members to 26 weeks (The Atlantic, 2013). It is imperative to note that this proposition has already been adopted and signed into law by President Obama.
Despite the struggle and the long wait to see the bill enacted, the Family and Medical Leave Act has been noted to provide minimal loss to employers, in regard to their account, despite the application of the provisions of the law by workers numerous times. Therefore, the Family and Medical Leave Act have proven integral in facilitating a work-family balance for workers (Harvard Business Review, 2013). In addition, there is minimal progress in the work-life legislation, which has been noted in the last 20 years, after the implementation of the law. This presents a lag in the development of family legislation in America, thus, it can be classified as an embarrassing situation.
The Family and Medical Leave Act have had a positive impact on different worker’s livelihoods that have benefited from the provisions of the law. While the leave may be unpaid, the leave gives the workers protection from dismissal and the progression of health insurance advantages that are accorded to workers during the period that they are not in the position to work (Harvard Business Review, 2013). Before the passage of the law, if an employee suffered from a chronic heart problem, or requested for a period to attend to a close family member, or attend chemotherapy sessions, there lacked a guarantee that the employer would not dismiss the employee during the period he or she was away. Considering the gravity of the situations that lead to sick leave, health insurance has proven vital to the lives of workers.
However, the Family and Medical Leave Act fail to provide an ideal law since it fails to meet the demands of various workers. Since the leave that is accorded to workers is unpaid, workers are unable to afford the leave, particularly in situations that demand them to leave the workplace (Dol.gov, 2015). Moreover, it is imperative to note that over half of the workers fail to take leave in consideration of the financial constraints that may result. Furthermore, over 40% of workers fail to meet their family needs since the Family and Medical Leave Act demands that the worker is employed in the current workplace for over a year, and worked for over 1250 hours in the last one year prior to the beginning of leave (The Atlantic, 2013). Also, the Family and Medical Leave Act demands that the employer must have over 50 full-time workers working in a 120-kilometer radius. These restrictions have created loopholes that can be exploited by employers to prevent their employees from seeking leaves and breaks to attend to family issues.
Over 50% of the workers that are not catered for by the Family and Medical Leave Act are unable to attain a healthy work-life balance. The Family and Medical Leave Act failed to guarantee minimal payment for part of the sick days. Currently, the United States is the sole developed nation that does not give maternity leave and the sole nation that fails to accord workers the freedom to take sick days. There are proposals for the implementation of an insurance program that will ensure the workers get a partial payment during the time of leave. From the discussion, it is evidence that there are integral changes that are required to increase the effectiveness of the Family and Medical Leave Act. Considering the changing workplaces, there is demand for the development of family work policies that guarantee workers the chance to be a good family member and a good employee.
We have been fighting to have the Family and Medical Leave act change in such a way as to provide more advantage of the time to the employees and change the eligibility requirements in such ways so that if a person is really in need of the leave, that he\she has to worry less about qualifying for it. There are however a few drawbacks that could come right alongside this change. One of these drawbacks is that upholding the law and granting its employees the required medical and family leaves may not prove as a very feasible option for small businesses that are barely on the verge of taking off the ground. This is because employees that avail these leaves on short notice are likely to leave the employers short-handed without enough notice to prepare themselves for the said employee’s absence from work. In a workplace that accommodates more than the sufficient number of employees, one or two employees leaving may not leave a noticeable strain but in small setups, the change is not very easy to keep up with. (Ludden, 2013)
There is also more than a reasonable possibility that once the requirements for those who really need the leave for genuine reasons is relaxed, the employees start misusing this relaxation and take days off for minor needs. Once the organization starts suffering from this loss, they may start imposing restrictions of their own on the employees and as a result, the people who genuinely need the leave to get better or care for family members may be denied through unnecessary red tape and paperwork and the leave that already exists might become that much harder to avail.
FMLA abuse could also occur in a way using which the employee of an organization might start working two jobs and when any one of the jobs requires, the employee may submit FMLA certificate to gain relief on one job to work on the other. This is another one of those possible ways in which the employees are abusing even the current FMLA act, and this abuse is likely to become even more intense with the change in the law which would again be countered by the employer changing the organization’s policies and making the situation more challenging for the other employees. (Susser, 2007)
The problem is that we cannot stop with all of the efforts just for the fear of a few possible outcomes that may not turn out in our favor. What we can however do is make the effort and have the Act changed to suit the needs of the present day average employee. As far as the drawbacks are concerned, we could take a few precautions to make sure that these leaves do not interfere with the operations of an organization that wants to make work easy for their employees. The solution of the first problem with small organizations is simple. It could do the organization significant amount of good to hire an extra employee in the organization. This is so that when one or two people may have to leave at the same time, the remaining do not suffer from the effects of burnout. The problem of FMLA abuse could simply be prevented by upholding a few precautional techniques and carrying out follow ups before approving the FMLA. It is also essential that the deserving employees not be denied of their right to avail these leaves. Improvement of these policies could improve a number of personal relationships and employee motivation, and this is why all of our efforts are pertinent.
References
Dol.gov, (2015). U.S. Department of Labor - Find It by Topic - Leave Benefits - FMLA. Retrieved 15 November 2015, from http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/benefits-leave/fmla.htm
Harvard Business Review, (2013). 20 Years After FMLA, What’s Changed and What Hasn’t?. Retrieved 15 November 2015, from https://hbr.org/2013/02/20-years-after-fmla-whats-chan/
Ludden, J. (2013, February 05). FMLA Not Really Working For Many Employees. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/2013/02/05/171078451/fmla-not-really-working-for-many-employees
Susser, P. A. (2007). On Again, Off again: Intermittent leave under the FMLA. Washington: Thompson Publishing Group Inc.
The Atlantic, (2013). The Family and Medical Leave Act at 20: Still Necessary, Still Not Enough. Retrieved 15 November 2015, from http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/02/the-family-and-medical-leave-act-at-20-still-necessary-still-not-enough/272605/
