2009-11-10 20:01:18 -

The Obama administration has modified the Family Medical Leave Act to include two new military leave measures aimed at helping the families of service men and women on active duty.

Labor attorney Terri Patak in the Pittsburgh office of Dickie, McCamey & Chilcote, P.C. says that one of these new laws extends military caregiver leave under the FMLA to the family members of veterans as well as current service members so that they may take up to six months to care for a service member who has a serious illness or injury incurred in the line of duty. Employers of these family members will have to adjust to this new change accordingly.

The second new measure, called Qualifying Exigency Leave, assists families

of military personnel who are called to active duty in support of a contingency operation. It enables family members to use their 12-week entitlement under the FMLA to attend to personal affairs such as child care and school activities, financial and legal arrangements and to spend time with the military family member who is on short-term, temporary, rest and recuperation leave. Before now, only family members of members of the National Guard or Reserves were eligible for this leave. The new law extends this leave to families of active duty servicemembers.

For more information on these new laws and how they affect military families and their employers, contact attorney Terri Patak at Dickie, McCamey & Chilcote, P.C., (412) 392-5230.


Skutski & Oltmanns, Inc.Bob Oltmanns, 412-281-5656 x 228