Essay Sample on FMLA: Job Security for US Employees

Introduction

An Act is a bill that passes through the legislative procedures for it to become a law. Such a laid down the law is backed up by the current constitution of the United States of America. Any violation of the Act leads to legal procedural punishment. The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is one of the various Acts in the legislative system of the United States of America that protects the employees. The job security the Act creates states that individual employees are entitled to a maximum of 12 weeks of job-protected unpaid leave per year. The essential nature of such a passed bill is in its design. It implies that the employees van be able to balance their work and their family responsibilities. The subject of the Act is upon all public agencies, companies with more than 49 employees, and all public and private schools (elementary and secondary). This paper discusses the ways this workplace law has impacted the ability of a supervisor to manage the day to day operations.

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FMLA was enacted in 1993, and an amendment followed in 2008 and 2009 for the purpose of making sure there is equality in employment opportunities to both genders. The supervisors are constrained to understand and comply with the law, recognize and understand the absence of employees and why it has occurred, and assess and respond to the leave requests of the employees (Mayer, 2013). Also, the supervisor should come up with a well-defined program highlighting how job duties will be covered when other employees are absent. A record of the usage of workday must occur.

The law has increased the work of the supervisor in managing the daily activities in the workplace. It has stressed a more keen approach when dealing with the employees. Recording every movement in terms of the duration of an employee in the workplace should be monitored to ascertain the limits in which FMLA applies (Tighe, 2015). The department must ensure a proper and accurate record of the workday of employees. Supervisors should also ensure that the human resource manager gets the information needed to maintain a precise model of the data record for the leave of an employee.

Recognizing FMLA is another vital process a supervisor should master. There are scenarios of exception in the imposition of the law; the supervisor is expected to be keener on the details of the absentia of the employee (Tighe, 2015). When FMLA applies to a situation, it is the responsibility of the supervisor to inform the employee about the FMLA.

A supervisor has no option but to comply with the requirement s of the law. Any breach of what is highlighted by the FMLA denies an employee his or her rights. The supervisor needs to assess and respond to leave requests (Barry, 2011). The approval of leave requests during workdays only if an employee is FMLA eligible. The human resource office sends the document or the communication which describes the ultimate decision of the leave request.

The work of a supervisor is to work with employees to schedule FMLA- related absences. The frequency of intermittent absences should be accordant to the health-care provider of the employee. Such scheduling should occur ahead of time to make timekeeping and staffing easier.

Conclusion

In a nutshell, the FMLA has impacted the work of a supervisor in different ways in the workplace. It has made accurate monitoring of the employees possible. Although it has increased some of the responsibilities undertaken, it has bettered the process of record taking and interdepartmental cohesion. The HR office has to ensure proper liaising with the supervisor.

References

Barry, L. A. (2011). Determining the Proper Standard of Proof for Incapacity under theFamily and Medical Leave Act. Iowa L. Rev., 97, 931. Retrieved from https://heinonline.org/hol-cgi-bin/get_pdf.cgi?handle=hein.journals/ilr97&section=30

Mayer, G. (2013). The family and medical leave act (FMLA): policy issues. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/key_workplace/1309/

Tighe, M. F. (2015). Family and Medical Leave Act. Geo. J. Gender & L., 16, 141. Retrieved from https://heinonline.org/holcgibin/get_pdf.cgi?handle=hein.journals/grggenl16&section=10