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Webcast Evaluation Jackson Lewis LLP F. Alvarez Bio Webslides: The FMLA After 14 Year. . .

Presented by ACC's Employment & Labor Law Committee and Jackson Lewis LLP

In 1993, the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) became the first piece of legislation signed into law by President Bill Clinton.  The FMLA was enacted by Congress with overwhelming support, citing findings and purposes that took note of the increasing number of families where either the single parent or both parents work; inadequate job security for employees with serious health conditions; the heavier burden carried by working women with the predominant responsibility for family caretaking; and, the laudable goals of “balancing the demands of the workplace with the needs of families” and “minimizing the potential for employment discrimination on the basis of sex by ensuring that leave is available on a gender neutral basis.”

A decade and a half later, administration of the FMLA has proven to be a great frustration to corporate legal counsel and human resource professionals.  There are many reasons innate to the FMLA for why this is so, but more fundamentally, the leave management puzzle is just that:  a complex interaction of federal and state laws, agency regulations, and employer policies and practices, all subject to interpretation by individuals, employers, juries, judges, and legal counsel on both sides of the bar.  It is no wonder, then, that at the end of 2006, the U. S. Department of Labor sought public comment on the FMLA regulations in an attempt to decipher whether the puzzle pieces are so jumbled at this point as to be incapable of a solution.     

ACC will not offer CLE credit for this program

Presenters:

    Francis P. (Frank) Alvarez, Partner, Jackson Lewis LLP 

    Eric A. Tilles, Assistant General Counsel, Arkema Inc.

Moderator:

    Christine Williams, Senior Counsel, Northrop Grumman Corp