Submitted by: Submitted by kkelly44
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Category: Business and Industry
Date Submitted: 05/01/2011 05:15 PM
Assignment 2, Family Related Issues
Law, Ethics, and Corporate Governance – LEG500
May 1, 2011
1. Explain if it matters that a parent literally had nothing to do with a biological child in order for the child to take advantage of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to care for that parent.
The way that the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is written, it does not specify whether or not a biological parent participated in the upbringing of the child or not. The definition of a parent is broad for the purpose of FMLA use. A parent is defined as a biological parent, adoptive parent, step parent, foster parent or an individual who assumed duties as your parent. An individual that assumes duties as your parent is called “loco parentis”. If an employee is trying to take leave for his or her loco parentis they may be required to provide documentation of the relationship.
In this case Tony has asked to take leave to move his father from the nursing home to his apartment. According to FMLA the parent must be qualified as having a “serious illness” In my opinion moving his parent of the nursing home isn’t a qualifying event according to FMLA standards. Regardless, the answer to the question is, no it doesn’t matter if the biological parent had anything to do with the biological child for the child to take advantage of FMLA.
2. Explain whether the size of the business can have any effect on whether Tony is eligible for family leave under the FMLA.
In the private sector, the size of the business does matter when it comes to the Family Medical Leave Act. “The FMLA applies only to employers who have had 50 or more full, part-time, or temporary employees on their books for 20 or more weeks during this calendar year or during the last calendar year. Once an employer has had 50 employees on its books for 20 weeks, the employer is covered by the Act -- both for this year, and for the next calendar year.” (dol.gov).
In this case Tony...