The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of 1993 is a federal law to provide employees time off of work for due to medical and family reasons. Reasons include: the birth or adoption of a child, an employee’s grave medical condition which prevents the employee from doing his/her job, or attending to the serious medical condition of a child, parent, or spouse. This leave is unpaid and requires employees to have been employed with the employer for at least one year.

The employee is permitted to maintain health insurance during the duration of the leave.

In the first scenario, the employee, who had worked for the company for two years, took family medical leave because his wife gave birth to premature twins. The employee returned to work a week early, per request. He was permitted to return to his position with his same rate of pay. The employee does not think is fair that he did not receive pay during the time he was on family medical leave.

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Lastly, the scenario includes that there is a new department manager.

The employee rightfully received the leave time because he was employed with the company for at least one year and had a legitimate excuse. He was rightfully given back his job position and rate of pay as specified in FMLA regulations. The company was right in this case not to pay the employee for the eleven week leave. The only way for him to receive any sort of pay was if he had any sick or vacation time that could be cashed out.

The new manager has nothing to do with this scenario since all FMLA regulations were followed.

The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA) places very strict regulations on business regarding the employees and hiring practices for individuals age forty and over. Businesses are not allowed to discriminate due to age during the hiring process or withhold raises and promotions of existing employees.

Scenario two explains that a 68 year-old employee was passed up on a promotion even though his work was above average. The promotion was given to an employee who was younger and who performed average work.

This scenario violates the ADEA regulation regarding promotions. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (1967) clearly explains that businesses cannot “limit, segregate, or classify his employees in any way which would deprive or tend to deprive any individual of employment opportunities or otherwise adversely affect his status as an employee, because of such individual's age”.

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 also regulates businesses’ hiring and employment practices regarding individuals with disabilities. No discrimination can occur as a result of a disability unless it places other individuals in an immediate safety threat. Reasonable accommodations must also be met to ensure that the employee will be able to perform the job given.

The last scenario describes an applicant in a wheelchair. The applicant was not hired because the business would have to adjust the height of half of their elevator controls. The business said that this was beyond reasonable accommodations.

The applicant’s rights were violated in this scenario. Lowering the elevator controls is not unreasonable. The U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission (2008) explains that reasonable accommodation includes “making existing facilities used by employees readily accessible to and usable by persons with disabilities”.

References
The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, Pub. L. No. 90-202 The U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission. (2008). Facts about the Americans with Disabilities Act. Retrieved February 18, 2013, from http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/fs-ada.html