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Employee Benefits

In a recent article on the subject of employee benefits, Alicia Ault Barnett analyzes the effects of passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act, cited by President Clinton as a victory in his domestic policy. The law was signed in 1993, and human resource professionals see it as an administrative nightmare. They refer to a provision that allows intermittent leave in increments as small as an our and even less as something that destroys productivity and employee morale.

The act requires employers with 50 or more workers to provide for up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave so the employee can care for a newborn or adopted child, care for themselves if they have serious health needs or for those of a seriously ill parent, child, or spouse, and during leave health benefits must continue at the same contribution level. Definitions of terms in this act is vague, and while the seriousness of a health problem is supposed to be certified by a health care professional and while employees are supposed to request leave 30 days in advance (except in emergencies), in reality employees are asking to qualify after the fact and are taking leave without prior agreement.

The law does not require a written policy from employers, though it is valuable for an employer to create such a policy. There are areas of confusion which might be addressed in this manner, though other areas will remain confused because of the way the law is written. The government, however, sees the act as highly successful.

The biggest problem is the issue of intermittent leave, and employers see it as "an administrative horror." It is costly to firms trying to put it into practice, and many see compliance as difficult. Intermittent leave is to follow a prior agreement between employer and employee. One problem is that while the basic intermittent leave is one hour, for some workers, such as those whose schedule is divided into eight-minute segments, sho...

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Employee Benefits. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 06:28, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1705138.html