After a number of regulatory changes were made regarding the federal Family and Medical Leave Act, some employers’ FMLA policies may not be up to date. To ensure that compliance with the federal law is met, the Department of Labor announced its intent to increase the number of on-site audits that will be conducted based on complaints.
In these audits, federal investigators will be looking through an employer’s FMLA policy to ensure that they comply with all of the updates and amendments that were made in 2008 and 2013.
Of the changes that were made in 2013, one will affect active service members, veterans and their families. In the past, a family member was only allowed to take military leave to care for a service member under the restriction that the injury suffered by the individual was a new injury suffered while on active duty.
The changes allow for a family member to take leave time to care for a veteran or service member that had previously suffered an injury while on active duty that was later aggravated in some way.
Keeping up with these policies can be a time-consuming task, but employers are expected to utilize the resources necessary to do so. Employees, however, don’t have the same resources. Thankfully, a Boca Raton employment attorney can combine their experience, understanding of the law and ability to research it to help employees.
An employee that has been denied FMLA leave, been retaliated against for taking or requesting this leave or whose employer has failed to uphold their obligations under this law can seek relief through the assistance of an attorney.
Source: The National Law Review, “Keeping Current – Recent Changes in Employment Laws,” Sarah J. Platt, March 5, 2014
