Former President Bill Clinton signed the Family and Medical Leave Act into law on Feb. 5, 1993. In remarks made at the White House Rose Garden that day, Clinton said the FMLA addressed a “substantial and growing need” of a changing workforce.
“We all bear the cost when workers are forced to choose between keeping their jobs and meeting their personal and family obligations,” Clinton said. “The [FMLA] sets a standard that is long overdue in working America.”
Thirty years later, the FMLA continues to form one of HR departments’ primary administrative responsibilities and grants millions of American workers access to job-protected leave to handle a wide range of life situations.
The law’s longevity is a point of pride for organizations like the National Partnership for Women & Families, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that played a lead role in drafting the FMLA and advocating for its passage.
“Our statistics show that in 30 years, the job-protected FMLA has been used more than 460 million times,” Judith Lichtman, senior advisor at the NPWF, said in reference to the findings of a study released by the organization this week. “And I feel like screaming it from the rooftops with a big smile on my face. It is an incredible number.”
The law provides 12 months of unpaid, job-protected leave to U.S. workers for qualifying reasons. Prior to the FMLA, no such guarantee existed at the federal level, said Jeff Nowak, shareholder at Littler Mendelson.
“It was groundbreaking,”...
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