On October 8, 2009, the House of Representatives voted to further expand exigency leave and military caregiver leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). The provisions amending the FMLA were included in the Conference Report for the FY 2010 Defense Authorization (H. Rept. 111-288 to H.R. 2647). The House voted 281-146 in favor of the measure. The Senate is expected to take it up later this week. If the Senate votes in favor of the 2010 Defense Authorization, the measure will go to President Obama for his signature.
The new amendment will only impact the qualifying exigency leave and military caregiver leave provisions, which were added to the FMLA in 2008. Click here for Proskauer's Client Alert from November 2008. Under the proposed amendments, qualifying exigency leave (which provides for up to 12 weeks of leave for family members to deal with certain issues arising from an impending deployment), would now be available to family members of all individuals currently on active duty. Previously, this leave was only available to family members of individuals called or ordered to active duty as part of a contingency operation, who are retired members of the Regular Armed Forces, or members of the retired Reserve, the Ready Reserve, the Select Reserve, the Individual Ready Reserve, or the National Guard. Additionally, the proposed legislation would expand military caregiver leave (which provides up to 26 weeks of leave to care for a covered service member who suffered a serious injury or illness while on active duty) to family members of veterans for a period of 5 years. Previously, this provision only applied to family members of active members of the Armed Forces.
If these provisions are enacted, employers will have to update their FMLA policies. We will continue to update you on developments
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