Commissioners Court - Regular Session

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34.

Meeting Date:	01/13/2009
Submitted For:	John Willingham	Submitted By:	Lisa Zirkle, Human Resources
Department:	Human Resources

Information

Agenda Item

Consider amending Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) policies to conform to federal changes.

Background

Congress approved major changes to the FMLA, with an effective date of January 16, 2009. The Department of Labor did not issue final rules until late December, and some required form prototypes were also delayed. The Court will receive a copy of the new policy by COB Friday, but please see the following summary of the major changes:

• Spouses who provide transportation or assistance related to pre-natal care or the birth of the child will be placed on FMLA.

• Comp time can now be used to pay employees who are on FMLA.

• Employees may be denied FML if they do not provide complete, sufficient, and timely certification of their qualifying condition or if they do not provide complete, sufficient, and timely fitness for duty (return to work) certification.

• Employers have more authority to verify, clarify, and authenticate requests for leave, and employers can also ask health care professionals if “pattern absences” (before or after holidays, Mondays and Fridays, etc.) are consistent with the employee's treatment regimen.

• FMLA leave can now be counted as use of sick leave if an employer has a sick leave incentive plan. (This means that we can now develop and implement such a plan.)

• Now there is Military Family Leave, which includes military exigency leave and military caregiver leave.

• Exigency leave is generally only for members of the National Guard and Reserve, and it provides for leave for military events, childcare and school issues, financial and legal matters, counseling, rest and recuperation, and post deployment activities.

• Caregiver leave is for service members of the regular armed forces and for service members in the National Guard and Reserve. It provides leave for the parent, spouse, child, or next of kin of a service member to give care or support to a qualifying service member.

Fiscal Impact

From/To	Acct No.	Description	Amount

Attachments
No file(s) attached.

Form Review

Inbox	Reviewed By	Date
County Judge Exec Asst.	Wendy Coco	01/08/2009 11:03 AM
Form Started By: lzirkle		Started On: 01/08/2009 10:22 AM
Final Approval Date: 01/08/2009