FMLA Basics

The following is written by Laudra Eber

FEDERAL & MEDICAL LEAVE ACT

Passed by Congress to cover all employers in the US and Territories, FMLA applies to all eligible employees of covered employers and provides twelve weeks of unpaid leave with job protection and continuation of health insurance under the same terms as though they had not taken leave. The twelve weeks is extended to 26 weeks if the leave is taken to care for a related service member.

Eligible employee:   a salaried or hourly individual employed for 12 month with 1250 hours of service.

Covered employer:  a company with 50 or more employees within a 75 mile radius.

Twelve weeks: may be intermittent

Employees are entitled to 12 weeks in a 12 month period for the following:

1. The birth of a child or care of a newborn within one year of birth.

2. Placement of child for adoption or foster care within one year of placement.

3. Care of spouse, child, or parent with serious health condition.

4. Serious health condition of the employee.

5. A qualifying emergency of an active duty military service member who is the

spouse, son, daughter or parent of employee.

The employer or the employee may require that FMLA be run concurrently with accrued paid leave

(vacation, sick leave) or in the case of the employee, with TDI.

Words of caution and how to avoid a lawsuit.

• Dads as well as moms can take 12 weeks to care for a newborn or bond with a newly adopted or fostered baby.

• Do not tell employee that you “cannot afford” for them to take time off.

• When bonuses or pay increases are automatically given, ie COLA, an employee on FMLA is entitled to the same increase.

• It is a good idea, though not required, that you insist that individuals taking FMLA make two phone calls, one to their immediate supervisor and one to (pick one) Human Resources, a third party administrator, a preselected manager.  Failure to do so negates FMLA.  This has already been upheld in several court cases.

• Another option being used, and legal, is to have the employee submit requests in writing for all absences.   Not practical for someone who wakes up in the morning with the flu but for vacation, scheduled medical appointments and FMLA, easily done.

Stuck and Stressed: The Health Costs of Traffic : Review Series Part 2

Frakt’s article on health effects of commuting resonated with my past life of an eight to nine Monday through Friday worker.  My commute to work became increasingly difficult and stressful when we had our first child.  Leaving in the mornings were filled with anxiety of getting our baby to daycare on time and missing traffic to get to work on time.  Then the commute home meant leaving work at a certain time to get the baby before the center closed.  That anxiety led to stress at work.  I was afraid meetings would run late as they often did or there would be traffic on the way home which would all delay me from picking up our son.  My husband’s commute was even worse so there was never a chance to switch responsibilities.  By the time we got home, we were both exhausted from the day’s stress, leaving us with little energy to really enjoy time with our son. 

We were on the verge of breaking down when we were both offered opportunities that allowed for flexibility and a significant cut in our commute time.  Working with EBC, I don’t have to commute and can work from home or my nearby coffee shop.  Eliminating our commutes thanks to our new flexible schedules gives us more time to take care of ourselves and our new baby boy.  In positions where a flexible work schedule was not offered, I felt an extra stress from my job plus a feeling that my employer did not care about my personal life outside of the office.  Those factors often lead employees like me to resent their job and care less about the quality of work they produce.  With this new opportunity for flexible work and less overall stress from a daily commute, I want to produce quality work for an employer I know cares about my well-being.  It goes a very long way to show your employee you trust them by offering options to help balance their work/life.  We can all benefit from less time in the traffic zone and more time at home.

Stuck and Stressed: The Health Costs of Traffic : Review Series Part 1

Austin Frakt recently wrote about the physical and psychological affects of commuting to work in his article: “Stuck and Stressed: The Health Costs of Traffic”. Frakt explains that not only is our health being affected by breathing in a copious amounts of exhaust each day but we’re taking on unnecessary stress which often leads to angry and often violent reactions. To read the full article, Click Here.

In response to Frakt’s article, EBC employees want to give their perspective on how commutes affected their work and the changes they have made to practically eliminate the health cost of commuting.

The following is written by Lachelle Rodrigues, consultant at EBC:

For 2019, EBC’s mantra is “Work Life Balance”.  As business professionals, wives, friends, and moms, our personal mission this year is to find that important equilibrium to create a healthy and happy work-life balance.  

One factor that can contribute to a stressful work week is the commute.  With Hawaii having some of the worst traffic in the nation, one fender bender and your 3 mile commute can turn in to a 90 minute nightmare.  We are able to alleviate ourselves from this bumper to bumper hair pulling energy drain by allowing for a more flexible work schedule and working from home when needed thanks to our cloud-based filing and database system.  I personally find myself working at 6am before my daughter is awake, or after 8pm once she is asleep for the night. At first it was hard to adjust to working odd hours especially because before a baby I tried not to bring my work home with me. Now, I view my flexible schedule as a blessing and I do not mind working the odd hours if it means more time with my daughter.

Flexible hours or working at home is becoming more and more of the norm.  The use of the technology has greatly enabled this type of telecommuting, and also the mindset of having a life outside of work is becoming increasingly important.  I do believe this is an important consideration for all companies if it aligns with their business model. I feel less stressed about time, traffic and fulfilling my daily demands in this chaotic world.  I can be more present for my child and my family as well as spend a few extra minutes of me time – even if it’s tending to my orchid plants.

Prepare for 2019 with Employee Benefit Consulting

Prepare for 2019 with Employee Benefit Consulting

Another year brings another opportunity to assess your company’s needs.  Whether you’re an HR manager for a large company or a small business owner the anticipation of growth for the upcoming year is exciting but doesn’t come without some struggles.  Benefit News lists the Top 10 HR challenges for 2019.  We also sent a survey to our clients at the end of 2018 asking them what their biggest HR concerns were.  Among the top concerns were: tracking employee activities (i.e. payroll, PTO and leave), staying compliant on a federal and state level, ensuring costs are low for comprehensive benefits and the time it takes to do all these activities plus all other HR related duties.

We want you and your employees to maintain a healthy work/life balance.  We have solutions for you to help track employee activities, send updates on state and federal regulations and save time with documentation preparation and more.  

Please contact us with any questions, comments, concerns or if you would like a demonstration of the programs that we have available for you and your employees.

We wish you a productive, healthy and prosperous 2019!

Work Life Balance Opinion: The "Sandwich" Generation

The holiday season is upon us and as we reflect on this past 12 months, I find myself being truly grateful of life events that create memories and stories to tell for years to come.   I remember when I was my son's age (12 years old) and watching my parents take care of my grandparents.  This "sandwich" generation is now where I am today.  I have a son that has entered middle school with all its challenges in addition to making sure my father is maintaining his health and independence.  The difference from when I was growing up is the technology of keeping in touch with family.  I wouldn't say it is much easier to be in the "sandwich" generation but with the smartphones and other means to communicate with family, the daily texts and calls feel like we are living in the same place.  Telecommuting has been around for years and with integrating online cloud storage systems and virtual office platforms, the business needs and family needs can be manageable.   I have always believed in a work/life balance and in our business world today, we can have both.

I recently came upon this article about telecommuting.  The trends appear to show that telecommuting is increasing its ground with businesses.  I am curious to see where the trend will be over the next five years:

https://blog.ifebp.org/index.php/telecommuting-who-offers-what-why

Leave your comments below on your thoughts about telecommuting.

Laudra's Lessons - "AMERICA'S BITTER PILL" ANALYSIS PART 2

This article is a continuation. Click HERE to read part 1

…… What happened to the Affordable Care Act that made it so un-affordable for so many?  What stood in the way?

First, Ted Kennedy became very ill with a brain tumor and subsequently died.  Healthcare’s hardest worker, most effective and ardent supporter was not there to champion the changes that needed to be made.

COSTS and POLITICS: Doctors conflicts of interest: 94% of all physicians accept consulting fees and free samples and that amounts to 7 billion for pharmaceutical reps and 18 billion in the form of free samples to doctors.  Hospitals and insurance companies provide enormous salaries to their top executives which are not often publicized. However, because of a SEC lawsuit, it was publicly released that United Healthcare paid their departing CEO over a Billion (no that is not a typo dollars in his severance package.

Sixty votes were needed in the Senate to pass the bill establishing ACA and that left those designing the plan open to blackmail from Senators that wanted something special in the bill for their state.  As an example, the Indiana Senator wanted the medical device tax lowered as there were device makers in Indiana. Drug companies, the medical device industry, and the “non-profit” hospitals leaned on the Senators in their states to exempt them from cost cutting that was needed to make the plan affordable.  It needs to be said, “non-profit” hospitals are anything but; they are big businesses and in some states the biggest with huge profits. Steven Brill gives one example: University of Pennsylvania Medical Center in 2009 had an operating profit in excess of 580 million and the chief executive officer took home four million in compensation.  Every Democratic vote was needed to pass the bill, so no Senator’s demand could be ignored.

The lobbyists really went to work, one example AMGEN, the drug company that wanted protection for their name brand drugs, delayed acceptance of generics and protection for their super expensive biologics spent more than 38 million on lobbying in the three years leading up to the start of the ACA. This at the same time that the company was being investigated in fifteen states for questionable sales and marketing.

In addition, the Republicans were determined to stop anything the new president submitted and they are traditionally opposed to big government programs. It should be noted that the ACA was modeled after plans that were proposed by Nixon and Johnson and passed by Romney.

RESULT: Americans cannot import their drugs from other countries, Medicare could not negotiate drug prices, no cuts in Medicaid payments, biologics are protected for twelve years; and thanks to the Supreme Court, namely John Roberts, there is no individual mandate.  The whole idea of insurance is sharing the risk. We all pay into the pot and when one of us gets sick the insurance pays for our treatment. Those young people who don’t want the insurance do have accidents and someday they will be old and the next generation will subsidize their insurance premiums.

To be continued…