The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to implement new statutory amendments to the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) that would expand military family leave provisions and incorporate a special eligibility provision for airline flight crew employees.
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Download NowAmong other provisions, the NPRM proposes regulations to implement amendments to the military leave provisions of the FMLA made by the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010.
Highlights of the proposed rule include:
- Extending military caregiver leave to eligible family members of recent veterans with a serious injury or illness incurred in the line of duty;
- Implementing a flexible, three-part definition for serious injury or illness of a veteran;
- Extending military caregiver leave to cover serious injuries or illnesses for both current servicemembers and veterans that result from the aggravation during military service of a preexisting condition;
- Extending qualifying exigency leave to eligible employees with covered family members serving in the Regular Armed Forces;
- Including a foreign deployment requirement for qualifying exigency leave for the deployment of all servicemembers (National Guard, Reserves, Regular Armed Forces);
- Adding special hours of service eligibility requirement for airline flight crew employees; and
- Adding specific provisions for calculating the amount of FMLA leave used by airline flight crew employees.
For additional information, the DOL has created a web page for the NPRM.
Editor's Note: On February 15, 2012, the DOL published the proposed FMLA rules in the Federal Register.