Georgia Job/Family Collaborative

Defend the Family Medical Leave Act

The Family Medical Leave Act is under attack. 

FMLA, America’s most successful step forward for working families, has been law for 12 years.  Now FMLA is under fire by special interest business lobbyists who don’t understand the struggles of working families.

 

Today, tens of millions of workers and their families stand to lose out because of actions pushed by special interest business lobbyists.  The same people who fought family leave before its passage are now trying to gut its protections.  These lobbyists are pressuring the Bush Administration to change a serious illness to one that requires at least 10 days off work (currently 3).  And they want to require workers to take FMLA in half-day increments, whether you need that much time or not. The effect would be devastating to families like Maria Vasquez’s.

 

Maria, a Denver health care worker, uses FMLA to take her son to the doctor for his severe asthma.  Forcing her to take leave in half-day increments will use up Maria’s leave faster, leaving her unable to care for her son. 

 

Defense of the FMLA

þ FMLA is pro-business.

Ü More than 4 in 5 employers report that family and medical leave is a net positive, with the benefits outweighing the costs.

Ü The majority of employers report that FMLA compliance has had a positive or no noticeable effect on the establishment’s productivity (84%), profitability (90%), or growth (90%).

 

þ FMLA is pro-family.  Workers don’t have to choose between the jobs and the health insurance they need and the families they love.

 

þ American public opinion supports the FMLA. The FMLA has allowed more than 50 million Americans to take job-protected leave to care for themselves or a loved one when they need it most.

 

þ An enormous coalition has organized to defend the FMLA. More than 200 organizations sent a letter to the Department of Labor in April 2005, and again in February 2007, urging the DOL to protect the FMLA.

 

þ Our goal should be to expand the FMLA so that it covers all workers and provides some pay during periods of leave.

 

þ The current FMLA regulations meet the original intent of the law and work well as written.

 

Proposed changes, such as those on serious illness and intermittent leave, would roll back the law.  Take action! 

 

For more information on how you can take action, visit the National Partnership for Women and Families’ website at www.nationalpartnership.org