FMLA: Department of Labor Overstepped Authority

2002 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 462-465

In Ragsdale v. Wolverine World-Wide the U.S. Supreme Court held that the U.S. Department of Labor overstepped its authority by requiring employers to formally indicate when they are counting an employee's leave of absence against that employee's entitlement under the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA). Ragsdale addressed the administrative burdens of notice present in situations where employers offer a more generous leave policy than the statutory minimums offered by the FMLA. In so doing, the court sought to answer the question of how to reconcile the promotion of generous leave policies in the private sector with simultaneous protection of the relatively new FMLA rights entitlement. The court's 5—4 decision highlights sharp judicial disagreement about how to best achieve this balance. Determining whether employers should provide formal notice that an employee's absence is FMLA-related also illustrates how a traditional-separation-of-powersa nalysis in the health-care context is increasingly complicated by administrative regulations.

2001 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 198-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grant Morahan

It is not known what causes type 1 diabetes (T1D), which affects over 1 million people in the U.S. alone. Each year, 30,000 young people in the U.S. develop this disease and depend on insulin injections thereafter. Because of the huge cost to the individual, the family, and to society in increased health care costs, it is important to find what makes these people susceptible. The disease process itself is clear: the individual’s immune system — T lymphocytes in particular — attack and destroy the body’s insulin-producing cells. But how and why this autoimmune process starts or proceeds unregulated is still not known.


1995 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 271-289 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzanne M. Crampton ◽  
Jitendra M. Mishra

Problems have resulted from the novel situation in the U.S. society where more and more parents are working, leaving them with less time and energy during the period surrounding the birth and early growth of a new infant. This issue has received considerable attention from both the private and public sectors. An increasing number of progressive companies have been proactive in offering paid and unpaid family leaves as part of their employees’ benefit package. On February 5, 1993, President Clinton signed a bill into law granting up to a total of 12 weeks of unpaid leave during any 12 month period to cope with a family sickness, childbirth or adoption. This paper discusses the history of family leaves and the passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) along with its provisions and implications. The FMLA is just a first step for the U.S. as other countries provide paid family leave with varying percentages of pay compared to the U.S. Examples of leave policies around the world are examined.


2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
William Bertrand ◽  
Elke de Buhr

AbstractVoluntary private sector agreements are common as a tool to regulate industries including the enforcement of labor laws in domestic and overseas markets. Agreements cover many different industries, and they differ greatly in scope, implementation and monitoring. Challenging to enforce, they have often been criticized by consumer groups and have sometimes failed. This article examines one of the oldest and most prominent examples of a voluntary industry agreement in agriculture, the Harkin-Engel Protocol targeted at addressing the worst forms of child labor in the cocoa sectors of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana. In 2006, the authors of this paper were first tasked by the U.S. Department of Labor to oversee the implementation of the Harkin-Engel Protocol on behalf of the U.S. Congress. They have since documented the Protocol’s implementation for more than eight years. This paper discusses the authors’ experience with private sector voluntary agreements for achieving social change in developing countries at the example of the Protocol. Special issues around the role of regulation and law within this process are our focus in this article.


2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 337-359
Author(s):  
Haley M. Sterling ◽  
Blake A. Allan

Maternity leave is not federally guaranteed or paid in the United States. Although there has been an increase of women in the workforce, federal maternity leave policy has not changed since the adoption of the Family and Medical Leave Act in 1993. The subjective quality of this maternity leave is likely an important component of what mothers perceive to be decent work. However, no scholars have developed measurements examining mothers’ subjective experiences of the quality of their maternity leave. Therefore, the goal of the current research was to develop scales measuring six domains of quality of maternity leave: time off, flexibility, coworker support, discrimination, microaggressions, and benefits (e.g., pay, health care, disability insurance). In two studies with diverse samples of working, adult mothers, we provide evidence for the factor structure, validity, and internal consistency of the Quality of Maternity Leave Scales.


Author(s):  
Timothy J. Minchin

After the difficult Reagan-Bush years, the Federation expected a lot from new Democratic president Bill Clinton, and played an important role in his election. This chapter explores the AFL-CIO during Clinton’s presidency, particularly his crucial first term. To be sure, Clinton did much more for working Americans than his Republican predecessors. Consulting closely with the Federation, he passed the Family and Medical Leave Act, issued a reemployment order for the former PATCO strikers, and appointed more sympathetic officials to the NLRB. Despite these important achievements, Clinton’s administration failed on the three key issues that the Federation had identified: health care reform, workplace fairness legislation, and trade. Rather than ensuring fair trade, moreover, the administration pushed through NAFTA with considerable zeal. In an effort to stop NAFTA, the Federation launched an unprecedented campaign among its members, but the President’s commitment to the Agreement won the day. Demoralized after this defeat, the AFL-CIO failed to campaign sufficiently in the 1994 midterm elections, helping the Republicans to make stunning gains. The GOP’s clean sweep of Congress destroyed hopes for progressive reform, and led to internal criticism of Kirkland’s leadership, which continued to baulk at fundamental reform. The stage was set for Kirkland to be overthrown.


2007 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 18
Author(s):  
KEVIN GRUMBACH ◽  
ROBERT MOFFIT

2007 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 6
Author(s):  
KEVIN GRUMBACH ◽  
ROBERT MOFFIT

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