Essay Example on Employee Rights & Privileges - Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)

Introduction

Target retail store is a general merchandise store that is operational in 50 states of the United States. The store is one of the stores that employ the largest population. The store follows the guidelines provided by the United States constitution on employee rights and privileges. The absence section of the store's employee handbook offers the guidelines to which an employee can qualify for a leave (Targetcw.com. 2020). Family and medical leave act (FMLA) provides the employees of the United States up to 12 weeks of unpaid and job-protected leave every year. The act set to help employees balance their work and family matters by attending reasonable matters for medical purposes. The absences section consists of several guidelines regarding various terms and conditions of work.

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As an employee, one expected to report to work daily because of the objectives of the business and the desire to achieved set targets by the stipulated time. However, some circumstances cannot be avoided and can unexpectedly lead to employees not reporting to work due to unavoidable circumstances. In the case of these circumstances, employees must help others resume duty as soon as possible. More so, companies ensure that employees have the best working environment for effective working and productivity. Retail companies give their employees time to attend to the urgent circumstances that might come up as they are working. However, not all circumstances qualify for employees to be absent.

There are certain requirements that an employee must accomplish in retail companies to qualify for a leave-in business. Employees that satisfy the board of management are allowed to go for any of the required leave. Failure to satisfy the management of the request for the leave is denied (Armenia, Gerstel, & Wing, 2014). It is also important to note that missing work without permission has a very severe punishment, which includes deduction of the pay depending on the number of days one missed work. However, this also carries very seriously, consequently, such as self-termination of work. Therefore, all these guidelines must be followed by all employees in Retail Company whenever a provision of leaves is concerned. In this section, we will enlighten you on how to navigate whenever a need to look for leave arises.

Target Retail Store Absence Section

FMLA leave

FMLA act applies to companies that have more than 50 employees, public agencies, and schools. Retail stores are some of the companies that hire a large number of employees due to their sophisticated operations. Retail stores operate from 9 am to 7 pm on weekdays. However, employees may report to work anytime between 9 am and 11 pm. It is mainly allowed if the team needs to stay unaffected due to lateness. Some vital departments in the stores, such as those dealing with customer support, might be required to work for some extra time. Employees in these departments need to follow the stipulated shift schedule to work.

An employee qualifies for a leave when they have operated for the company for at least one year and has at least a total of 1250 salaried hours for the company. The employee is not supposed to have been on a new leave in the last three months. Our company offers a variety of leaves that are differentiated explicitly in their categories. The leave is classified depending on their nature and urgency. The holidays are significant in the retail store, and employees are allowed to have time to relax with their families. However, these holidays also leave. Nonetheless, any employee who decides to labor during the leave will receive leave pay. Employees wishing to work during the holiday should notify the human resource manager three days prior, to allow adequate planning and budgeting for the same.

Among the leave offered by the retail store include; FMLA, medical leave, military leave, return to work, jury duty, and other forms of paid vacation. FMLA is a kind of leave under the domestic and medical vacation act. It includes up to 12 weeks of free but job-protected leave per year. It also involves that employee's condition benefits preserved during this period. It allows them to take leave because of medical or family reasons. This type of leave also helps the store and the company to offer equal job opportunities to both men and women. It helps in accommodating the legitimate interests of the retail store. FMLA leaves one to take care of a family member with a severe health condition, also allows for birth, and taking care of a newborn baby of a worker. It also provides for an employee to take a medical leave in the cases where one is incapable of working due to a severe health situation.

Medical Leave

In our retail store, the company offers one week of paid sick leave. But this also varies depending on the laws governing various states and countries that the retail store exists. One can take sick leave to recover from injuries, mental issues, and short-term illnesses. However, employees utilize their sick days to recover from contagious and highly infectious diseases to avoid spread to other employees (Rossin-Slater, 2017). When infected, employees immediately notify their manager and present their ill leave requests. One can work from home or a partial day off. However, the store encourages one to stay at home and fully recuperate. The company occasionally requires employees to submit a physician's or any other medical certification. Medical certificates are essential in applying for insurance covers when the employees are not back within three days. Medical leave can either be under FMLA, which is protected by the family and health leave act. However, health vacation acts provide the employee with adequate time to seek medical attention. Employees in a retail store are encouraged to seek medical appointments when they are not for working. Target store pays for sick leave only to the employees who are in cities, countries, and states with paid leave act.

Military Leave

Another type of leave is military leave. Target Retail Store recognizes the entitlement of individuals serving in the military under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Right Act. This type of leave entails any time off stipulation to a staff who is fellows of the national protector that are called to active responsibility to attend planned training and other standby services. One can get a military leave of 2.5 days months and can extend up to 60 days over two years. The employee is also entitled to initial employment, promotion, reemployment, retention in hiring, promotion, and other benefits of employment.

Return to Work

Return to work leave is offered to employees who help other injured employees in their recovery process and returning to work. Even though there is no guarantee to full payment, one is entitled to return to work. The employer can decide to pay employees only for the days they have worked.

Jury Duty

Jury duty is also another essential aspect of one's job. An employee can be called upon to act as a member of the court. It can affect job attendance because once someone summoned to attend court, they must participate unless excused. A jury duty leave can either be paid or unpaid, depending on the length or duration of the process. Every employer must give their employees a day off when summoned to attend to a jury. It is essential to note that every citizen is obliged to attend to jury duty once summoned, and they need to have a day off or leave to attend to the jury. Failure to do so can cause very severe punishment to both the employer and the employee. The employee is allowed to return to work if the jury is out early or if the hearing postponed.

Job Abandonment

According to Tougba (2016), job abandonment is when an employee is absent from work consecutively without giving prior notice. It can also apply when the employee is absent from work and has not given any indication that they will return to that particular job. This particular unresponsiveness mainly results in involuntary termination of employment.

Paid Leave

Among the named leaves, there several others that classified under paid leave. This particular kind of leave will include; bereavement leave, parental leave, jury duty, and military leave (Appelbaum & Milkman, 2015). This leave is payable in full during those days when the employee was not present at work. The employer is obliged to pay the employee when in mourning. Whenever an employee loses a close family member, they should have adequate time to make proper arrangements for the send-off of their loved one. The employees should also receive payment when they are on maternal leave. It includes both the parents. Employees wishing for the pay for their leave must provide documents including the postdated cheque indicating the amount to be paid by the store.

References

Appelbaum, E., & Milkman, R. (2015). Leaves that Pay: Employer and worker experiences with paid family leave in California. EPRN. http://www.lerachapters.org/OJS/ojs-2.4.4-1/index.php/EPRN/article/view/1909

Armenia, A., Gerstel, N., & Wing, C. (2014). Workplace compliance with the law: The case of the family and medical leave act. Work and Occupations, 41(3), 277-304. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0730888413502657

Rossin-Slater, M. (2017). Maternity and family leave policy (No. w23069). National Bureau of Economic Research. https://www.nber.org/papers/w23069

Targetcw.com. (2020). Retrieved 2 April 2020, from https://www.targetcw.com/wpcontent/uploads/2019-EE-Handbook-TargetCW.pdf.