Employee Safety, Health, and Welfare Law Paper
The discussion of this paper will be The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), Worker’s compensation, and Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA). The following questions will be answered, what are employers’ responsibilities under the law and what protections does the law provide for employees?
The Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) was signed into legislation on February 5, 1993, by President Clinton and was one of his first pieces of legislation of his administration. The law entitles an employee a total of 12 weeks of leave during a 12 month period for the birth of a child, placement of a son or daughter with the employee for adoption or foster care, in order to care for the spouse, a son, daughter, or parent of the employee if they have a serious health condition, and a serious health condition of the employee that makes he or she unable to perform the functions of the position(Bennett-Alexander & Hartman, 2007, p. 297). In order to qualify an employee must have worked for the employer for at least one year and at least 1,250 hours during the 12 months preceding the requested time off and must give the employer at least 30 day’s notice when practical of the intent or need for the leave (Bennett-Alexander & Hartman, 2007, p. 297).
All employers with 50 or more employees within a 75- mile radius must comply with the FMLA and may require employees to use vacation or other leave before applying the unpaid leave, but the employer must compensate the employee for any vacation or other leave type used. During this period the employer must provide benefits just as if the employee was still at work but may make the employee liable for any benefit he or she would normally pay. According to the Department of Labor, ...