Chao, commenting on a U.S. Supreme Court decision last week that struck down a Labor Department regulation that penalized employers who failed to inform workers upfront that their paid leave and unpaid federal job-protected leave run concurrently, said the ruling isn’t a defeat for workers.
“I’m dismayed to see decisions couched as labor versus management. It sets up an adversarial relationship. For workers to be protected, everyone needs to be engaged,” Chao said.
The ruling doesn’t decrease the time off available to workers under the law. However, under the regulation, workers stood to gain more time off than the law intended based on a technicality.
The regulation stated if an employer failed to inform a worker that their paid leave is part of the 12 weeks of unpaid leave guaranteed under the Family Medical Leave Act, the time doesn’t count against their FMLA leave. Essentially, the worker could receive up to another 12 weeks off–unpaid, of course.
Many employers administer their leave systems this way, said Joan Gale, an attorney and medical-leave expert at Chicago law firm Seyfarth Shaw. She said the regulation unfairly penalized employers for goofing up paperwork.
“This decision is easy to understand,” she said.
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