Monthly Archive for December, 2011

Improving Access to the FMLA Through Improved Forms

Published on December 14, 2011 in Sarah Crawford and Workplace Fairness. 0 Comments

Director of Workplace Fairness

Nearly 20 years ago, passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) was a major milestone in the effort to help families meet their work and family needs. For the first time ever, many workers were guaranteed up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave a year to care for a close family member or address their own serious health concerns, including pregnancy and childbirth. For women in particular, the law aimed to combat gender discrimination by granting women and men equal access to leave and preventing women from being penalized or unfairly denied job opportunities due to assumptions about their family caregiving responsibilities.

To date, no other law has had a greater impact on workers’ ability to meet their work and family obligations, without sacrificing their jobs, than the FMLA. In fact, we estimate that the law has been used more than 100 million times by women and men across the country. But sadly, nearly half of the workforce isn’t eligible for FMLA leave, others may not know the law exists or experience other barriers to accessing it, and many cannot afford to take the unpaid leave it provides (which is why it is important that Congress and state legislators adopt paid leave programs).

The National Partnership was the lead organization behind the FMLA and the driving force behind its passage. We have long supported efforts to expand the law, increase eligibility and improve overall access. We helped win amendments in 2008 and 2009 that now provide military families up to 26 weeks of unpaid leave under the law to care for a wounded service member, or up to 12 weeks for qualifying exigencies related to active duty. And forward-thinking legislators in many states have advanced their own expansions of the law to cover more workers. Find out what your state offers through our policy database: www.nationalpartnership.org/wfdb

We’re always seizing opportunities to improve the FMLA and make accessing leave easier for workers. So when the Department of Labor (DOL) announced it was seeking comments on the forms used by employers and employees when an FMLA leave request is made, we knew it was an important chance to address a potential barrier to accessing FMLA leave. DOL currently provides model forms for employers and employees to use in providing notice of FMLA eligibility, rights and responsibilities, and for the certification and re-certification of need for leave. While these forms are aimed at making the process easier, there is room for improvement to help ensure smoother application of the FMLA.

In a letter the National Partnership submitted to the department, joined by 60 of our committed allies, we recommended key ways to enhance the clarity and usefulness of these forms – and stressed the need to minimize paperwork burdens for workers. Our key recommendations included giving employees access to a new optional form to request leave, removing irrelevant and invasive medical questions, and requiring employers to properly explain their reasons for denying a request for leave. We believe that these adjustments can go a long way toward reducing some common barriers to FMLA leave.

Much more can – and must – be done to ensure that all workers can take the job-protected time they need to care for their families and their own serious health conditions – and request forms are an important consideration. We are happy the department has taken on the issue and hope the comments it receives will result in improved forms and, consequently, improved access to FMLA leave for working families. Our nation’s families, businesses and communities will be stronger when workers can take the job-protected time they need.

Congress Must Protect the Lifeline Women and Families Depend On

Published on December 8, 2011 in Vicki Shabo and Work & Family. 1 Comment

Vicki Shabo, Director of Work and Family Programs

Some things are simply unthinkable. Congress failing to protect the basic benefits that are keeping women and families afloat is one of them.

If lawmakers fail to extend unemployment benefits by December 31st, families around the country will be devastated. More people will lose their homes; more children will be hungry; and more parents will be unable to clothe and care for themselves and their kids this winter. In January alone, nearly two million unemployed workers will stop receiving critical support. At least six million people will be cut off during 2012, including people in more than 20 states who are currently eligible to receive unemployment insurance because they are caring for an ill family member. A bad situation will get appreciably worse. And the road to recovery from this recession will be even longer and more arduous.

Women in particular will suffer. Women are now the sole or co-breadwinners in the majority of U.S. households, so it is especially alarming that the unemployment rate among women who maintain (or head) families is at 12 percent. Some five million women over age 20 are currently unemployed. And many of those who are employed are one sick day or one child’s illness away from being unemployed because they don’t have job-protected paid sick days or paid leave to meet their families’ inevitable health needs.

How do we stabilize and support these women and their families? It starts with extending unemployment benefits. The Census Bureau reports that unemployment benefits kept more than three million families from falling into poverty in 2010. When it takes unemployed workers an average of 8 months to find a job in this economy, letting this critical support expire would be irresponsible – and unforgivable. It would undoubtedly hurt women and families, and it would hurt our economy.

Helping working families and the nation recover starts with the extension of these benefits. But it is also essential that we create jobs and establish workplace standards like paid sick days and paid leave that allow workers to keep the jobs they have, particularly when illness strikes. We simply cannot afford to force working mothers and fathers to make impossible choices between job and family when they get strep, a child has the flu or a spouse is injured.

Congressional action to support families by extending unemployment benefits in tough times is not new, and it is far from rare. Lawmakers have taken this step routinely over the last 50 years whenever the unemployment rate was above 7.2 percent. And it’s higher than that now. Passing this important measure shouldn’t be the subject of debate, it shouldn’t become yet another political football, and it shouldn’t come down to the wire.

Let’s all tell lawmakers: Extend unemployment benefits, and adopt basic standards that let workers care for their families while holding their jobs. Women and families are counting on them to do that now.

Shameful: Partisan Politics Block Another Highly Qualified Judicial Nominee

Published on December 7, 2011 in Debra Ness and Judges & Supreme Court. 1 Comment

Debra Ness, President, National Partnership

Cross-posted from Huffington Post.

All year, we’ve seen partisan politics impede the progress America needs — from jobs to anti-discrimination measures to work and family advances to the safety net. On Tuesday, we had a stark reminder that our system of justice too can fall victim to political gamesmanship.

After more than a year of stall tactics and procedural roadblocks, the Senate failed to close debate and hold an up-or-down vote on the nomination of an impeccably qualified lawyer, Caitlin Halligan, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. By blocking a nominee with exemplary qualifications and bipartisan support in the legal community, the Senate has put politics ahead of qualifications and competence for judicial nominees, threatening access to justice in this country.

Caitlin Halligan has the kind of impressive academic and legal background that has won support from those on both sides of the political aisle in the past. She graduated with honors from Georgetown University Law Center, clerked for Justice Stephen G. Breyer on the Supreme Court and Judge Patricia M. Wald on the D.C. Circuit Court, and she has spent much of her career in government service. She is currently the general counsel to the New York County District Attorney’s Office and previously served as the solicitor general of the state of New York. As solicitor general, she argued five cases before the Supreme Court and was counsel of record in more than 50.

These outstanding qualifications and demonstrated commitment to equal justice garnered Halligan praise and support from diverse legal scholars and organizations with diverse agendas and judicial philosophies since she was nominated 14 months ago. And her background prompted the ABA’s Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary to give her a “highly qualified” rating by unanimous agreement.

If an eminently qualified nominee like Caitlin Halligan cannot get an up-or-down vote in the Senate, how will any future nominee be seriously considered? And how will the nation get out of the judicial crisis we are facing?

More than one in eight federal judgeships in the country — 99 positions — are, or soon will be, vacant. And 29 of them qualify as judicial emergencies. Members of the Senate not only chose to ignore Caitlin Halligan’s merits, but they also ignored the urgent need to fill three vacancies on the D.C. Circuit. Arguments that the court can adequately handle its caseload as is are nothing more than a short-sighted attempt to mask the obstructionist, partisan tactics that drove Tuesday’s vote. The court’s caseload demands a full bench. Without it, justice for more Americans will be delayed.

The Senate also missed an important opportunity to add diversity to the court. When our courts are more reflective of the population, people have more confidence that judges understand the real-world implications of their rulings. Caitlin Halligan would have been only the sixth female judge in the 118-year history of the D.C. Circuit, which makes the failure to bring her nomination to a vote even more disappointing.

Justice in this country depends on having qualified judges on our courts who have a demonstrated commitment to equal justice for all. Americans depend on our court system to resolve disputes as efficiently as possible, and we depend on judges to provide equal consideration and to apply the law without regard to politics or personal agendas. What happened with Caitlin Halligan raises deep concerns about the courts’ future ability to do so. The Senate must end the partisanship, objectively consider all of the nominees who are awaiting confirmation, and act quickly to put an end to this judicial crisis.