Question

The FMLA was intended to be a benefit to employees who need to take off work for an extended period of time to deal with family medical related issues.

What do you see as the primary benefit of the act?

What are some weaknesses of the act from an employee and an employer perspective?

How would you change the act to make it both beneficial to employees and fair to employers?

Answer 1

The primary benefit if the Act is that employees are able to have unpaid leaves for 12 weeks in case of medical emergency of a relative or the employee himself or herself. In this case the employee can return to job after 12 weeks is complete and the person has the right to return under the act.

The weakness from a employee's perspective is that the leave is unpaid and from an employer's perspective is that if the employee is a very important player even then the employer cannot argue or cannot make any exception in this case.

In order to make the act beneficial to both employees and employers I will have some exceptions where if the employee is a very important player in the organization then that person can be allowed to work from home so that the organization is not majorly affected and I will also try to make this period paid to some extent so the employees actually do not get reluctant in case of medical emergencies.