New Federal Posting Requirements in Effect

(February 27, 2008) The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has added a posting requirement to notify employees of recent changes to the federal Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) that provide additional leave rights to military personnel and their families.

The new federally required posting must appear next to the 2008 California and federal employment poster immediately. This is an addendum and should not be posted over the current FMLA posting. Failure to post the notice could result in fines and penalties.

The amendments to the federal FMLA went into effect on January 28. There are two major changes to the law. Because of these amendments, companies may have to provide as much as 12 weeks of leave for an employee whose family member will be on active duty, and as much as 26 weeks of leave for an employee to care for a family member who has been injured in the line of duty.

FMLA may be used to care for:

A newborn child or if a child is placed with your employee for adoption or foster care. The spouse, child or parent of your employee, if the spouse, child or parent has a serious health condition. A serious health condition of the employee that means he/she is unable to perform the functions of the position. New Reason for Leave

The amendment adds a reason for leave under FMLA for "any qualifying exigency (to be determined by regulations) arising out of the fact that the spouse, son, daughter or parent of an employee is on active duty or notified of impending call or order to active duty in the armed forces in support of a contingency operation."

Because the amended FMLA is a new law, regulations are not yet in place to implement it. If a business has an employee who may be eligible for leave under one of these provisions, consult with legal counsel.

Downloads Available

CalBizCentral, the source for California business and human resource compliance products, presented by the California Chamber of Commerce, has made the FMLA addendum available online at www.calbizcentral.com/fmlaposter. A Spanish version of the posting will be available on CalBizCentral once the language is finalized.

The DOL is modifying the entire FMLA poster to include the current language and the addendum on a single, up-to-date FMLA poster. The DOL also intends to update the posting based on related proposed regulatory changes that are not yet final.