Family Medical Leave Act ( FMLA ) Poster is Now Available

*Last Updated: 11/17/2008 - Please bookmark page to periodically check for updates.

Final Regulations For The FMLA Are Now Published

The U.S. Department of Labor updated its regulations under the 15 - year - old Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) - a measure that will help workers and their employers better understand their rights and responsibilities, and speed the implementation of a new law that expands FMLA coverage for military family members.

The final rule consolidates all employer notice requirements into a "one-stop" section of the regulations to clear up some conflicting provisions and time periods. Further, the final rule clarifies and strengthens the employer notice requirements to employees in order that employers will better inform employees about their FMLA rights and obligations, and allow for a smoother exchange of information between employers and employees. It also modifies the current provision that had been interpreted to allow some employees to notify their employers of their need for FMLA leave up to two full business days after an absence, even if they could provide notice sooner. Under the final rule, the employee must follow the employer's normal and customary call-in procedures, unless there are unusual circumstances.

To read the full final regulations, click here.

What’s Next?

Order the Complete Labor Law Poster which will update you on all State and Federal postings for the 2009 year or order the Federal Labor Law Poster which has the updated FMLA, USERRA (rev. 10/2008), and Employment Opportunity Poster (rev. 08/2008).

For continual compliance, please consider the Compliance Protection Plan™.

Note: The FMLA, only applies to employers that employ 50 or more employees for each working day during each of 20 or more calendar workweeks in the current or previous year. The 50-employee requirement includes both full-time and part-time employees. Public agencies, private elementary and secondary schools are covered employers as well. If you are NOT a covered employer, please click here to see if there were any state changes that occurred to your state.

Pre-Order FINAL FMLA Labor Law Posters

For the first time since 1993, The Family and Medical Leave Act was amended and the new laws have been in effect since early 2008. The revised FMLA poster has been pending since the amendments were released. To ensure that you will have the most up to date labor law posters, LaborLawCenter™ is currently taking FMLA pre-orders on our Complete, Federal, and Bilingual Federal Labor Law Posters. You can pre-order now, without having to worry about ordering the posters when they are available, and when the posters are released, we will ship the most current posters to you. Rest assure, you will not be charged or billed until the posters are shipped.

Note: The FMLA, only applies to employers that employ 50 or more employees for each working day during each of 20 or more calendar workweeks in the current or previous year. The 50-employee requirement includes both full-time and part-time employees. Public agencies, private elementary and secondary schools are covered employers as well. If you are NOT a covered employer, please click here to order your labor law posters and we will ship the current compliant version for your state immediately.

If compliance and maintaining the labor law posters is a task you would like to be streamlined, please consider our Compliance Protection Plan™.

The Family and Medical Leave Act Has New Notice!

Recent amendments to the FMLA were enacted on January 28, 2008 to provide two new leave entitlements to eligible specified family members:

(1) Up to 12 weeks of leave for qualifying exigencies arising out of a covered family member's active military duty, and

(2) Up to 26 weeks of leave in a single 12-month period to care for a covered service member recovering from a serious illness or injury. Eligible employees are entitled to a combined total of up to 26 weeks of all types of FMLA leave.

The law was in effect January 28th, 2008 and the new Federal poster, Military Leave Notice, was just released.

LaborLawCenter.com is offering different options for employers to be in compliance. (Note: Please check if you're a covered FMLA employer as this only affects covered FMLA employers.)

In addition to releasing the new optional notice, the government is currently taking comments to consider and review before issuing the final regulations. The public has until 12:00 midnight April 11, 2008 to submit their comments. After the deadline, all comments will be reviewed and considered and the issuance of the final regulations will occur with the final FMLA poster.

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), is an act that states covered employers must grant an eligible employee up to a total of 12 workweeks of unpaid leave during any 12-month period for one or more of the following reasons:

January 28th, 2008, President Bush signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008. In the Act under section 585, the Family Leave Act of 1993 was amended to allow time off for individuals who need to take time off to care for injured members of the armed forces.

Among other things, section 585 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 (NDAA), amends the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) to permit a "spouse, son, daughter, parent, or next of kin" to take up to 26 workweeks of leave to care for a "member of the Armed Forces, including a member of the National Guard or Reserves, who is undergoing medical treatment, recuperation, or therapy, is otherwise in outpatient status, or is otherwise on the temporary disability retired list, for a serious injury or illness."

The NDAA also permits employees to take FMLA leave for any “qualifying exigency” arising out of the fact that the spouse, or a son, daughter, or parent of the employee is on active duty or has been notified of an impending call or order to active duty in the Armed Forces in support of the contingency operation.” But until the Secretary of Labor issues its final regulations on defining “any qualifying exigency”, this provision of the NDAA is not in effect yet.

The amended Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 is in effect as of the date of the President’s signing which was January 28th, 2008. Currently the guidance regarding the rights and responsibilities under the new legislation is being prepared. During this time, employers are to act in good faith in providing the leave under the new legislation.

	Frequently Asked Questions Will there be a new poster for the FMLA? Yes. The new poster will be updated to reflect the new expanded protection. Whether the current poster will be revised or if a new poster will be issued is still to be determined. The Compliance Protection Plan™ ensures that any Federal and/or State regulation pertaining to posting requirements will be closely tracked and reviewed to ensure the timely arrival of updated labor law posters when any posting guidelines has been updated regardless of the number of updates. Is there currently a new FMLA poster? No. The new legislation and the guidance on the rights and responsibilities are still being prepared. When will the new or updated poster be available? There is no information or timeframe that can be given on the status of the new or updated FMLA poster. Please continually check our website for any new information. Be certain that we will make it a priority to provide the new poster to all our customers as soon as possible while also replacing our Compliance Protection Plan™ participants as soon as the poster is available. Who Will Be Affected By The Amended FMLA? The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), only applies to employers that employ 50 or more employees for each working day during each of 20 or more calendar workweeks in the current or previous year. The 50 employee requirement includes both full-time and part-time employees. Public agencies, private elementary and secondary schools are covered employers as well.

State Plan vs. Federal Plan

There are currently 12 states that have enacted similar statues as the Federal Family and Medical Leave Act. These states are California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia.

State FMLA laws may define a certain term in their statue differently from the Federal FMLA or they may have expanded more rights for their working citizens. The federal change that just occurred may not necessarily change the State FMLA postings but regardless of whether your state has enacted a state FMLA, the Federal postings must still be complied with if you’re a covered employer.