Relatives of on duty service members have had the opportunity to take the well known family leave given to workers after the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) was passed under President Bill Clinton since 2008. Relatives can care for a servicemember or care for their family's needs while a servicemember is on duty.

The changes to FMLA were made by the National Defense Authorization Act signed by President George W. Bush in 2008.

Making Military Servicemembers One of the Protected

Military servicemembers do not have to face the risks of active duty and spend time away from family without their relative being able to count on taking time off work to take care of family needs. The health of their relatives and events that take place while a servicemember is away that can make a worker change their work and family schedule get a workers' full attention. Work responsibilities do not hold them back.

Military Caregiver Leave

Workers related to a servicemember with a serious illness or injury that service in the line of duty on active duty made happen can request military family leave from their employer to take care of the servicemember. Any relative who is next of kin is close enough to be covered by the FMLA law. The worker can use up to 26 weeks of leave days during 12 months. The President's Commission on Care for America's Returning Wounded Warriors (the Dole-Shalala Commission) advised the lawmakers that the relatives of military servicemembers get more than the normal 12 weeks of unpaid leave.

Qualifying Exigency Leave

The days members of the National Guard and Reserves spend on active duty in support of a contingency operation do not go by without a worker in the family getting the opportunity to take the time off work they need to handle the family needs, what the law calls a qualifying exigency. The need has to become a reality because the military servicemember is on active duty or called to active duty in support of the contingency operation. These workers get the normal 12 weeks of unpaid leave.

There is a broad range of needs:

1. short-notice deployment
2. military events and related activities
3. childcare and school activities
4. financial and legal arrangements
5. counseling
6. rest and recuperation
7. post-deployment activities
8. additional activities the worker and their employer agree on

No Troubling Situations

Workers can clock out of work any time they need to make sure the family is taken care of. Leave opportunities are always there. Troubling situations that ruin a family schedule are not.

Source:

U. S. Department of Labor, Final Rule on Family and Medical Leave: Providing Military Family Leave and Updates to the Regulations (2008).