An Investigation of the Impact on Higher Education of the Family & Medical Leave Act of 1993

Abstract

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) requires businesses with 50 or more employees to grant eligible workers, with the exception of their top management, up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave during any 12-month period for the birth and first-year care of a child; adoption or foster placement of a child in the employee's home; the care of a spouse, child, or parent with a serious health condition; or the serious health condition of the employee. 1 Higher education administrators collectively groaned when colleges and universities learned that their institutions were indeed covered by the FMLA. Up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave are allowed for eligible employees, those who have worked for the employer for at least 12 months and for at least 1,250 hours during that period. This project surveyed human resource directors at selected two-year and four-year higher education institutions in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana to see what effect the FMLA produced in it first four years. Many instructors and staff members have indicated a lack of awareness regarding the FMLA. Apparently, most college and university employees did not believe that a 12-week leave was available to them. Perhaps the extremely liberal time off already enjoyed by higher education rendered an understanding of the FMLA unnecessary. The results of this study provided a much different portrait according to human resource directors surveyed. By means of this study personnel specialists suggested that information regarding the FMLA had been widely disseminated and that employees throughout the institutions were well acquainted with the Act. This study sought to investigate various issues regarding the FMLA as well as the degree of awareness possessed by the higher education community.