Family Related Issues Essays - Leave, Business Law,

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. According to the FMLA standards they do not state whether a parent who was physically or financially there for their biological child can take advantage of the program. Although the FMLA has many restrictions, being able to care for an absent parent is not one of them. The Act specifically states that employees qualify for the program when either they or a family member suffer from a ?serious health condition? ("The family and," 2011; Halbert, The employee must have worked for the company for more than 12 months. They also must have worked at least 1, 250 hours during the previous year ("The family and," 2011). It also states that the condition must either prevent the worker from performing his or her job, or require the worker to care for the sickly family member ("The family and," 2011 ). In the case of caring for a parent that was absent from their child?s life is more of a moral issue. A child is not obligated to take care of a parent; it is totally up to that person as to wh ether they would want to deal with that matter. After all the man was still Tony?s father, and even though he was never in his life for whatever reason. Tony still feels as though it is his duty to be there for his father in his time of need. With Tony he wanted to do the right thing for his father, even though he never had a relationship with him. Tony seen taking care of his father as the perfect opportunity to create a bond between the both of them and it may have been his last chance to really get to know him. There are three different kinds of FMLA leave that Tony would qualify for to care for his father. First, there is the Continuous FMLA leave when an employee is absent for more than three consecutive business days and has been treated by a doctor ("The family and," 2011). Second, there is the Intermittent FMLA leave which is when an employee is taking time off in separate blocks due to a serious health condition that qualifies for FMLA. This leave can be in hourly, daily, or weekly increments ("The family and," 2011 ). Last, there is the Reduced schedule FMLA leave, which is when an employee needs to reduce the amount of hours they work per day or per week, often to care for a family member or to reduce stress. If Tony did decide to care for his father then he would have no problems being covered under the program. 2) Explain whether the size of the business can have any effect on whether Tony is eligible for family leave under the FMLA. A businesses size has a tremendous effect on a person?s eligibility for the FMLA program. Even though Rally Motors is a small company Tony should still be eligible to take leave under FMLA. The Act states that in a company Employees are eligible to take FMLA leave if they have worked for their employer for at least 12 months, and have worked for at least 1,250 hours over the previous 12 months, and work at a location where at least 50 employees are employed by the employer within 75 miles ("The family and," 2011; Halbert, This rule is better known as the ?50/75? rule. Now if the company had less than 50 employees, then they would not be required to implement the FMLA because the company may not be able to function with a small amount of personnel ("The family and," 2011; Halbert, In one part of the video Tony?s tells Mr. Herman that he has at least fifty employees if he counted everyone that was currently working for the company. Mr. Herman?s gripe was that the company was very smal l, and everyone in the company was a crucial asset to the business. As long Rally