New: Employer's Guide to the Family and Medical Leave Act

If you are an employer covered by the FMLA, the U.S. Department of Labor has published a new "Employer's Guide to the Family and Medical Leave Act." The guide explains the FMLA regulations in a user-friendly manner, however, the Guide primarily is meant to answer common questions about the FMLA, so it does not address the FMLA issues that regularly frustrate employers. Click here to download the Guide.

New: FMLA Poster

As a reminder, under the FMLA and its regulations, an FMLA-covered employer must post a copy of the general FMLA notice (Publication WH-1420) in each location where it employs workers (even if there are no FMLA-eligible employees at that location). According to the FMLA regulations, the notice must be posted "prominently where it can be readily seen by employees and applicants for employment."

The DOL has published a new FMLA poster for use in the workplace (Publication WH-1420a). Covered employers may continue to use the previous poster and are not required to replace it with the new poster. Generally, the new poster is more "user friendly" and easier to read than is the current version of the poster. The DOL has advised that, "The February 2013 version of the poster is still good and can be used to fulfill the posting requirement." Click here for the new poster.