FMLA IS GOOD

   Last week marked the 20th anniversary of the Family Medical Leave Act, which allows employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid but job-protected time off for medical reasons. Yet millions of American workers continue to be at risk of losing their jobs should they or a child, spouse or parent become seriously ill for any length of time.    Workers such as Danielle Buchman, whom Washington Post reporter Brigid Schulte featured on Sunday in an article marking FMLA’s anniversary:

Eight weeks before Danelle Buchman’s baby was due, an artery ruptured in her uterus, which nearly killed her and her child. Delivered by emergency C-section in 2010, her newborn daughter, Avery, spent one month in intensive care. Buchman survived only after an immediate hysterectomy. When she tried to return to a PR job she loved and had won rave performance reviews for at a Maryland nonprofit a few weeks later, Buchman’s employer first demoted her and cut her salary by a third. Then it fired her.

   According to the results of a U.S. Department of Labor survey released last week, FMLA has been working well for employees and employers alike. “Employers generally find it easy to comply with the law, and misuse of the FMLA by workers is rare,” the DOL noted in a statement that announced the survey results. “The vast majority of employers, 91 percent, report that complying with the FMLA has either no noticeable effect or a positive effect on business operations such as employee absenteeism, turnover and morale. Finally, 90 percent of workers return to their employer after FMLA leave, showing little risk to businesses that investment in a worker will be lost as a result of leave granted under the act."   But that hasn’t kept some business interests from continuing to contend that the law is too generous to employees and too burdensome to employers. A lobbying group with the Orwellian name the National Coalition to Protect Family Leave has been trying to rein in the law since its inception. One of their oft-repeated claims is that FMLA allows employees to take unpaid leave for “pink eye, ingrown toenails and colds.” 
   Many labor and health officials argue, however, that FMLA needs to be expanded, not tightened. The United States trails most of the rest of the world when it comes to taking care of sick employees, they point out. Indeed, we’re the only industrialized country without mandatory paid sick leave. And we’re one of three countries (out of 177) that does not have mandatory paid parental leave. The other two: Papau New Guinea and Swaziland.