Labor Department finalizes new family leave rules

The U.S. Labor Department has announced final revisions in the Family and Medical Leave Act, including new rules defining how families of wounded service members will be able to take unpaid leave to care for them.

While the addition of military families to the landmark law received positive reviews, the Labor Department's other revisions to the act caused concern among labor and employee advocates.

The AFL-CIO's Cecelie Counts said the new regulations dealing with military families were "fair" but called the rest a "rather stingy reading of the law."

Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., said letting military families use the FMLA was necessary "to help military families balance work and family." But the "other changes to the Family and Medical Leave Act look like they will, on balance, benefit employers at the expense of workers," said Woolsey, a member of the House Education and Labor Committee.

The new regulations will be published Monday in the Federal Register and go into effect Jan. 16. Changes include:

--Allowing employers to require "fitness-for-duty" evaluations for workers who took FMLA time and are returning to jobs that could endanger themselves or others.

--Allowing businesses to exclude from perfect attendance awards employees who took FMLA time.

--Stopping employers from charging FMLA time to employees who come back to work but can only do "light" duty.

--Prohibiting an employee's direct supervisor from getting an employee's medical information when a medical certification is needed under FMLA.

--Forcing workers to tell employers in advance when they want FMLA time. Current regulations allow employees to tell employers up to two days after not showing up for work that they are using FMLA. Employees will now have to follow their employer's regular rules for informing them about missing work "absent unusual circumstances." (AP)