Expanding Family & Medical Leave

[SoxFan]

Hard to believe it's been 15 years since the Family and Medical Leave Act went into law. Here's an interesting suggestion on how to modestly build on its success.

http://www.ideasprimary.com/?p=466&print=1

A “3-6-12″ system of guaranteed leave. This new leave plan would give all workers a combination of paid and unpaid leave, including three days of unpaid, short-term leave per year to be used for essential personal and family business such a as parent-teacher conferences and doctors’ visits; six weeks of paid for the birth or adoption of a new child or for serious health crises in the immediate family; and 12 weeks of unpaid leave under FLMA for millions more workers, by requiring companies with more than 25 more employees to comply with the law.

A right to request flexibility. Beyond provisions to allow leave from work for special family circumstances, a “Right to Request Flexibility” benefit would help parents arrange their everyday work lives in a way that balances work and family obligations. Within reason, parents should be able to request flexible schedules, and the burden should be on the employer to show why they cannot accommodate those requests.

“HomeWork” tax credit for telecommuters. This tax credit would help parents and others who work from home because they are caring for a family member by offsetting the cost of telecommuting-related expenses like computers, software for sharing and securing business data online, printers, fax machines ant other necessary equipment.

“Working Families 2020″ project. The establishment of this joint entity would bring together the public and private sectors, non-profits, unions and faith-based organizations, to share ideas and resources and promote best practices.

[dflprincess]

1. I suppose it's better than nothing

but the fact the FMLA is unpaid still means it's out of reach for an awful lot of people.

It really only works when the indivdual using it is the one who is out on maternity or sick leave and they're lucky enough to have disability insurance that will kick in. Or, in two earner families where the person not using the leave makes enough to cover all the expenses.

[guitar man]

2. this part could use some changing

work at a location where at least 50 employees are employed at the location or within 75 miles of the location

When my wife had our baby 2 years ago, I couldn't have used FMLA to take care of her and the baby even if I could have aforded to. I work for a large nation wide corp. with hundreds of employees, unfortunately, there are only 6 employees within 75 miles of my location.

Luckily, there were no complications and no extended recovery time for her, but had there been something that required me to take extended leave to take care of them, We would have been screwed because FMLA does not apply to my job.