As of Friday, Jan 16., changes to the Family and Medical Leave Act regarding benefits for military personnel and their families will go into effect. The final regulations include two new leave entitlements for eligible family members:
- Up to 12 weeks of leave will be granted for a covered military member's qualifying exigency leave, or notification of an impending call or order to active duty status in support of a contingency operation;
- Up to 26 weeks of leave will be granted in a single 12-month period to care for a covered service member recovering from a serious injury or illness incurred in the line of duty on active duty. Eligible employees are entitled to a combined total of up to 26 weeks of all types of FMLA leave during the single 12-month period.
To be eligible for leave, an employee must have been employed for at least 12 months, and have worked 1,250 hours during the 12 months preceding the leave. He or she must also be employed at a worksite at which the employer employs at least 50 employees within 75 miles of the worksite.
Eligible employees can take leave to care for a covered family member injured in the line of duty and who meets certain requirements:
- The covered family member must be undergoing medical treatment, recuperation, or therapy; or
- otherwise in outpatient status; or
- otherwise on the temporary disability retired list.
Covered family members include the son, daughter, parent or spouse of the employee. The new provisions include any current member of the regular Armed Forces, including the National Guard or Reserves, and service members on the temporary disability retired list. Retired military personnel are not covered in the new provisions.
The current FMLA defines son or daughter as a child under 18, or older than 18 who is unable to care for him or herself. Under the new military caregiver provisions, a son or daughter is defined as "the covered [service member's] biological, adopted, or foster child, stepchild, legal ward, or a child for whom the covered [service member] stood in loco parentis, and who is of any age."
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The provisions also extend to "next of kin," defined in the final rule as a covered service member's "nearest blood relative, other than the [...] spouse, parent, son, or daughter." The rule prioritizes which "blood relatives" are eligible to act as a caregiver: "blood relatives who have been granted legal custody of the [service member] by court decree or statutory provisions, brothers and sisters, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and first cousins." If a covered service member designates in writing another family member as his or her nearest blood, that person can act as next of kin, provided they are a blood relative.
Click here for the full text of the final regulations, or read the DOL's brief at www.dol.gov.
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