When Johnny's Family Goes marching off ... Military Leave Under the FMLA

By Maj. Elizabeth Gagot
EPI Executive Officer

NEW ORLEANS - The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), 61st Annual Conference and Exposition in New Orleans offered Human Resource managers great sessions on intergenerational relationships, employment law and legislation, and skill development.

Matthew S. Effland, shareholder, Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak and Steward, P.C. of Indianapolis address military leave under the Federal Medical Leave Act.

In January 2008, Congress amended the FMLA for the first time in 15 years to add leave rights for employees who have family in the military. Unfortunately, Congress did not bother to describe how the law was supposed to work. Now the Department of Labor has issued regulations, and companies are scrambling to be compliant.

Effland talked about how active duty and caregiver leave work and how each will impact companies in the months and years ahead.

Know your rights:

Granting FMLA for employees who have family in the military. An employee by law, is now authorized to take "FMLA – for Active Duty and Caregiver leave" which authorizes employees to care for an injured service member for a maximum of 26 weeks (without penalty), beyond the already 12 weeks offered by FMLA.

FMLA is available for all employees for a maximum of 12 weeks within one calendar year.

Employees must be able to provide documentation (proof – medical documentation) for HR to grant the leave.