Work Leave under Review at Labor Dept.

The Bush administration has given the U.S. Department of Labor's Employment Standards Administration, Wage and Hour Division a directive to propose new rules to the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). FMLA, in effect since 1993, entitles eligible employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave in a 12-month period for specified family and medical reasons.

The Employment Policy Foundation estimates that FMLA cost employers $21 billion last year in replacement labor, lost productivity and continued health benefits. Many companies find it difficult to mangement FMLA. For instance, some companies have employees taking leave due to medical reasons that may not be the "serious health condition" envisioned by Congress when it passed the law. Many companies believe that stricter or more explicit guidelines would keep some employees from abusing the system. Fifty million workers have used FMLA since it became law, with most employees taking about 10 days off. Many use FMLA to attend to ill family members.

No new rules have yet been made by the Labor Dept., nor has it indicated a timeline for them.

The law is particularly important for the 59 million Americans without paid sick leave. In addition, there are 86 million workers who can't use sick leave to care for children, according to the Institute for Women's Policy Research.