Customer Reviews

Essential Guide to Family & Medical Leave

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The Family Medical and Leave Act (FMLA) of 1993, amended in 2008, makes it possible for employees under certain situations to take unpaid leave, keep their benefits and protect their jobs.

FMLA has applied to me as an employee, and even though I am not an HR professional, I have a role to play in its application at work. This law affects a lot of people.

FMLA doesn't apply to all companies and not all employees are eligible. Many states provide additional coverage and modified definitions. Further, the employee and employer are required to meet certain communication standards (here's an area where many of us have not complied). You need just one good, comprehensive book, along with the requisite forms and spreadsheet, to avoid the minefield. This is it.

Employers absolutely need this book. Compliance with FMLA is not voluntary. Situations occur where FMLA applies. Employees should know their rights and how to exercise them. Each side should be responsible to be informed as needed. In the overwhelming majority of cases, neither side will need to consult with an employment attorney, provided they can use this one book. That's real value.

The authors, employment attorneys Lisa Guerin and Deborah England, convincingly demonstrate this is not something to manage ad hoc. Their concise book is 496 pages, significantly longer than their 1st edition before the law was amended. This book was written in such a manner as to be the one resource you need when an FMLA situation occurs. You can then follow the procedures presented in a simple manner, and also use the necessary forms on the CD. Separately, you can read this book prior to an FMLA situation just to make sure you have a foundational understanding.

10 Steps to FMLA Compliance: This book presents us with 10 Steps to compliance, and the chapters flow from there. This is an excellent way to present the material because the 10 Steps are in logical sequence. If FMLA does not apply, you may discover it in Step 1 or Step 2, for example, and conclude your case. There are slightly more chapters than Steps. That is because some definitional chapters are needed. An example is Chapter 4: What is a Serious Health Condition?

The CD - ROM contains all the useful fillable forms an employer would need, a very useful spreadsheet for the calculations and documentation, and audio files to use as teaching tools. The CD is going to be very useful.

The authors created a beautiful index and appendixes that are truly useful and well-written. I cannot imagine a more accessible book on this subject.

Considering the new frugality imposed on business, one cannot call an employment law attorney over every matter. Economic realities force us to become more productive. Compliance with FMLA is properly done in-house. This NOLO book along with the CD makes it possible.

Once again Nolo has published a fine legal guide. This one deals with the Family and Medical Leave Act, or FMLA for short, a federal statute that applies to many employees of mid size and large companies, businesses, and government. It allows for Maternity leave, care of sick relatives, time off when sick, and similar issues. The book is essentially a guide to who can apply for this leave, how it is done, rules regarding requesting the leave, and especially how to stay out of trouble. If not done properly, FMLA can get you fired. On the flip side, an employer can face a wrongful termination lawsuit if they handle the administration of the leave wrong. The book even includes Military Applications of FMLA. I recommend this book for both the employee and employer working in human resources to be sure FMLA is handled appropriately. It also includes an easy reference CD in a pouch. I have read several Nolo reference guides and they all provide superb advice and guidance written by experts in the field.

Nolo Press has long been known as a superior resource of legal issues for those without legal training. Here, Nolo has brought out their second edition of their FMLA resource. The Family & Medical Leave Act first came about in 1993 but naturally has been modified in the years since. This edition covers all the changes through the 2008 amendments.

The text is written primarily for a reader with the employer's perspective, but I suspect that a large number of readers may be employees interested in taking a leave of absence under FMLA. While the text is not written for the physician, nearly all physicians must from time to time assist patients who are asking for a medical leave; the book is equally useful in helping physicians learn how to be helpful to such patients.

In any case, the text is laid out in a neutral manner that will prove helpful for employers, employees, and physicians alike. It clearly covers the requirements which must be met by all parties through which both sides can be satisfied that the legal equation has been properly met. I found it interesting that intermittent leave is covered by FMLA for individuals suffering from migraine or other similar medical difficulties that arise briefly, unexpectedly, and in a potentially impairing manner. Naturally, the 2008 amendments are covered in detail as well, with particular attention to the issues at hand when a family member is ill as a result of active military duty.

The book includes a CD-ROM with the various required forms. Again, this is primarily helpful for the employer, but employees may find the forms and descriptions instructional as well. The CD-ROM will work on both Macs and PCs, though Nolo only provides support for PC users. Hopefully this will change in the future given the increasing number of employers who base their computer systems on the Macintosh.

In summary, this is a must-read for HR personnel desiring a strong introduction or review of the FMLA, and is highly recommended for employees finding themselves in a situation where knowledge of the FMLA vagaries would prove useful. As with any legal employment-related issue, there are potential problems that can arise for both employers and employees; the text helps both sides work their way through the issues via clear explanation and case vignettes.

The Essential Guide to Family and Medical Leave is one of the best purchases I have made. It has already paid for itself with the easy to follow format which allowed me to find my answers quickly. The CD is a bonus and the "lessons from the real world" are very helpful as everyone can relate to real life examples.

I highly recommend this book as a must have addition to your Human Resources Department.

In the late `80s I was on a sort of policy congress for the place I worked, where employees were given at least the illusion of having a say in the way things were done. Our facility had a crazily generous attendance policy in which one could get up to seven no fault (don't ask, don't tell) attendance incidents, for a maximum of seven days each, and a rolling calendar where incidents would roll off in a 90 day incident free period. Of course there came a time when abuse of the system brought a required change (for example, some folks would call off the month of December to spend time with the family).

The result was shocking to me in that it remained the same for everything except if you missed 14 days in a calendar year, you would be terminated. So still no fault, no excuse, 14 days. When I confronted the HR manager, with "so if an employee's kid or spouse has a serious health matter come up that's it?" They said, "Sorry, yes".

With the early `90s, came the FLMA and corrected the issue, and while there are still abuses to the system, to be sure, it remains a more balanced system.

Here in NOLO's book, HR and supervising managers, are not only clued into what is legal and what is not, but also they give advice on doing the right thing, which I think is above and beyond, and also praiseworthy. This is a handy and worthwhile guide.

5*

The book has a lot of useful information for individuals. I didn't have a particular need, but it helped me understand my rights as an individual when approaching FMLA. It is a good starting point, but it appears to be a set of generalized answers to general questions, it doesn't go into a lot of specifics. It's a fairly comprehensive book, but I'm not sure if it covers some state level details.

Many reviewers have commented that this book is a must-read for people who work in Human Resources. That might be the case, I would not know. I thought the book was an excellent reference for any lay person who wanted to know what they can (and just as important) cannot do under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). In a non-judgmental manner, this book explains when you can take maternity leave, time off to care for ill loved ones, intermittent leave and how to show that you have satisfied all the requirements under FMLA. There is a CD for easy reference should you need to quickly look something up.

In short, this book is extremely useful to anyone--whether you have an ill relative at home, need time off to have a baby or are a service member. It may not be the most exciting book you have ever read but it will be among the most useful.

Small business employers often find it difficult to navigate through what seems like complex laws in a cost effective way. This guide offers good guidance for employers who can't afford to "hire out" their human resources functions and have to do it all themselves. What I like about it is that it's authored by an attorney so you feel is though the information is reliable. Thank you.

I was expecting a guide geared toward employers, but there's plenty of useful information here for individuals. It's important to understand your rights as an individual when approaching FMLA. And this is a great place to start. I say "start" because this book is light on the state laws that may affect you.

The book dedicates a small section to discussing the impact state laws can have, and an appendix with laws and resources for some states. However, because this isn't a state-focused guide, I wouldn't consider it comprehensive if you need to research the laws for a given state. However, it does point you were to go to get the information you need.

All in all, this is an excellent resource.

Like most Nolo Press books, this one offers helpful guidance to a potentially confusing topic. Nolo books are reliable in their information and are easy to understand. This book provides guidance on how to get the benefits you are intitled to under law, without threatening your job. Basically tells you what to do and what not to do, in a comprehenisve yet easy to follow way. I would recommend this book to anyone who needs to make extensive use of family or medical leave. Employeers would also be well advised to read this book, so that do not make any blunders which may open them up to a lawsuit.