 |
|
|
NEW UNION FMLA FORMS
FMLA APWU TRAINING (pps)
FINAL REGULATIONS
Dan Sullivan <dan_sullivan9026@hotmail.com>
Southwest Michigan Area Local
- Saturday, November 15, 2008 at 17:50:56 (CST)
FMLA RULES A FINAL BUSH ‘SALUTE’ TO WORKERS
The Department of Labor has issued its long-awaited revised regulations covering the Family and Medical Leave Act. The new rules markedly weaken workers’ rights and greatly expand the power of employers under the law.
The regulations are a final middle finger salute to America’s working stiffs from outgoing President George W. Bush.
The new rules, which go into effect on Jan. 16, 2009, require employees and doctors to provide more information to obtain FMLA leave and increase costs for employees while broadening the rights of employers to gather personal medical information and deny employees coverage under the law.
The regulations will be published in the Federal Register on Nov. 17. For anyone with good eyes and plenty of time on their hands, they can be read right now on the Internet at: http://www.federalregister.gov/OFRUpload/OFRData/2008-26577_PI.pdf
In an Orwellian press release, Bush’s Department of Labor calls the 762 pages of rules “common sense reforms” that “will expand FMLA for military families and clarify rules for workers and employers,” though it was an Act of Congress - specifically legislation sponsored by Democrats Hillary Clinton and Christopher Dodd - not the Department of Labor, that extended FMLA coverage to the military.
The revised regulations will put new weapons into the hands of USPS FMLA Coordinators, who will now have free rein to not only harass and argue with workers seeking FMLA leave, but also with their health care providers.
The postal bureaucrats will now have broader authority to challenge medical certifications and require fitness for duty examinations before allowing employees to return to work after an intermittent FMLA absence.
Postal FMLA bullies will also be able to demand medical recertification on a more frequent basis.
The new rules revise the Department of Labor’s standard medical certification form (WH-380), which health care providers use to certify an employee's serious health condition. The new form requires more detailed answers from the health care provider and gives Postal FMLA thugs more reasons to judge a certification incomplete or insufficient.
The American Postal Workers Union was a leader in opposing the proposed new FMLA regulations back in February when they were announced.
America’s workers will now have to look to the incoming Democratic Congress and newly elected President Barack Obama for relief from President Bush’s final salute to workers. |
 |
|
| |
|
|
