State governments that violate the federal Family Leave and Medical Act should be just as open to monetary claims from their employees as private employers are, a Bush administration official argued before the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
The U.S. Supreme Court was scheduled to hear arguments today in a case that has become a widely watched test of federal labor law as it applies to employees of state governments.
Sixty percent of American workers are eligible to take time off under the Family and Medical Leave Act, but few actually do, according to the Christian Science Monitor.
Of the 364 or 365 days in a calendar year, Americans work about 255 of them. This figure accounts for days off, sick days, vacations, holidays and personal days. Employers generally see this as part of normal business and make staffing adjustments to maintain business as usual.
More than half of American women go back to their jobs by the time their children are 3 months old, which, not coincidentally, is about the time their unpaid leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act runs out.
The U.S. Supreme Court said that it will decide whether states benefit from immunity from lawsuits by state workers under a 1993 federal law that allows employees to take time off to care for a seriously ill family member. The justices will consider whether the Family and Medical Leave Act represents a valid exercise of congressional power to nullify the sovereign immunity of the states under the Constitution from lawsuits by individuals.
The Supreme Court handed a victory to employers on Tuesday, ruling 5-4 that a company should not be penalized for failing to notify workers that they are entitled to take up to 12 weeks unpaid medical or maternity leave each year under the Family and Medical Leave Act.
The idea of giving paid parental leave to federal employees has received a big bucket of cold water from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, which issued a study concluding that such a benefit would do little to stem turnover or improve hiring.
Charity programs that let employees swap unused leave time for employer contributions toward terrorism relief could get a boost from a new IRS policy, according to USA Today.
