Print
E-mail
Comment
Rate
Family leave act costs cash, staff shortage
By Julie Becker
Daily News staff writer
The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) contributes to significant costs particularly for public sector employers like the City of Beloit.
That's because the public sector allows workers to bank large amounts of sick and other paid leave and, by law, substitute it for unpaid FMLA leave.
“Under Wisconsin FMLA, the employee has the right or the choice whether or not they want to substitute,” City of Beloit Human Resources Director Florence Haley said.
The federal version of the law allows employers to mandate their employees use paid sick leave concurrently with FMLA, which the City of Beloit does, Haley added.
Both state and federal FMLA are designed to provide up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave time for employees dealing with their own personal illness, serious illness of an immediate family member or the birth or adoption of a child.
Private sector employers also must allow employees the same option of substituting paid leave for FMLA, but the private sector generally does not allow workers to bank days. The more paid leave workers are able to bank, the greater the burden and cost to the organization.
“My observation is that FMLA does create for some officers the ability or incentive to be away from the job for long periods of time and to be compensated for it,” Beloit Police Chief Sam Lathrop said.
Besides having to pay officers who are on leave, FMLA sometimes creates situations that lead to hiring back officers and paying overtime to cover shifts, Lathrop added.
In 2006, 23 officers used a combined total of 2,348 hours of paid FMLA leave and 388 hours unpaid, up from the 1,822 paid hours and 345 unpaid hours used by 18 officers in 2005.
There's no way to show how many hours of overtime that produced and whether they were generated simply by an FMLA absence, Lathrop said, but added, “We feel the significance of FMLA in our staffing every single year and I'd say not a single police department, fire department or public agency employer wouldn't say the exact same thing.”
In fact, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce Director of Human Resources Policy John Metcalf said that's probably the number one problem for public employers when it comes to FMLA.
“Once leave is available, you can substitute it. In the public sector where you can accumulate sick leave, it's more likely you'd have situations with people substituting leave where they wouldn't otherwise be eligible,” Metcalf said.
“I've kind of heard over the years from the counties and other public sector employers that that's a real issue for them.”
As for the private sector, a nationwide compensation survey of employers in the private industry, conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor in March 2006, shows that 85 percent of full-time workers nationwide had access to unpaid family leave, whereas only 9 percent had access to paid family leave.
Although Wisconsin law did not originally intend for FMLA to include paid time off - it was the result of a supreme court decision in the 1990s - it's a reality both public and private employers still deal with, Metcalf added.
“Promoters always hang very heavily on the unpaid leave aspect, but in Wisconsin it tends to be paid because of the substitution language. That wasn't necessarily the agreement when the bill became law in the ‘80s,” he said.
Lathrop agreed, “The original intent of this legislation was caring and helpful, but I think there were unforeseen circumstances and, in practice, it does create challenges for work places.”
That's because the public sector allows workers to bank large amounts of sick and other paid leave and, by law, substitute it for unpaid FMLA leave.
“Under Wisconsin FMLA, the employee has the right or the choice whether or not they want to substitute,” City of Beloit Human Resources Director Florence Haley said.
The federal version of the law allows employers to mandate their employees use paid sick leave concurrently with FMLA, which the City of Beloit does, Haley added.
Both state and federal FMLA are designed to provide up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave time for employees dealing with their own personal illness, serious illness of an immediate family member or the birth or adoption of a child.
Private sector employers also must allow employees the same option of substituting paid leave for FMLA, but the private sector generally does not allow workers to bank days. The more paid leave workers are able to bank, the greater the burden and cost to the organization.
“My observation is that FMLA does create for some officers the ability or incentive to be away from the job for long periods of time and to be compensated for it,” Beloit Police Chief Sam Lathrop said.
Besides having to pay officers who are on leave, FMLA sometimes creates situations that lead to hiring back officers and paying overtime to cover shifts, Lathrop added.
In 2006, 23 officers used a combined total of 2,348 hours of paid FMLA leave and 388 hours unpaid, up from the 1,822 paid hours and 345 unpaid hours used by 18 officers in 2005.
There's no way to show how many hours of overtime that produced and whether they were generated simply by an FMLA absence, Lathrop said, but added, “We feel the significance of FMLA in our staffing every single year and I'd say not a single police department, fire department or public agency employer wouldn't say the exact same thing.”
In fact, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce Director of Human Resources Policy John Metcalf said that's probably the number one problem for public employers when it comes to FMLA.
“Once leave is available, you can substitute it. In the public sector where you can accumulate sick leave, it's more likely you'd have situations with people substituting leave where they wouldn't otherwise be eligible,” Metcalf said.
“I've kind of heard over the years from the counties and other public sector employers that that's a real issue for them.”
As for the private sector, a nationwide compensation survey of employers in the private industry, conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor in March 2006, shows that 85 percent of full-time workers nationwide had access to unpaid family leave, whereas only 9 percent had access to paid family leave.
Although Wisconsin law did not originally intend for FMLA to include paid time off - it was the result of a supreme court decision in the 1990s - it's a reality both public and private employers still deal with, Metcalf added.
“Promoters always hang very heavily on the unpaid leave aspect, but in Wisconsin it tends to be paid because of the substitution language. That wasn't necessarily the agreement when the bill became law in the ‘80s,” he said.
Lathrop agreed, “The original intent of this legislation was caring and helpful, but I think there were unforeseen circumstances and, in practice, it does create challenges for work places.”
 |
 |
|
| Sick leave use hard to monitor | Case closed, but fight goes on |
Article Rating
Reader Comments
The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of beloitdailynews.com.
Submit a Comment
Login below to post your comment. |
Not yet a member? Use the form below to register. |
