Deployment law brings needed relief: new job protections for family members of National Guard and Reserve.

• Author: Cummings, Judith
• Position: HR MATTERS

When Kerri Jones' National Guard unit received notice of deployment to Iraq in June 2008, her family was not prepared. In the weeks leading up to the deployment and immediately afterward, her husband, Jim, barely had time to get everything in order regarding childcare and financial arrangements. Complicating matters: they had just sold one house and bought another.

To close on the real estate transaction after Kerri left, Jim and Kerri had to take care of some extra paperwork. Jim spent a great deal of time running between banks, attorneys' offices and real estate agents.

All told, Jim was away from his job for more than 40 hours during those weeks handling deployment-related financial, legal and child care issues. He was lucky--he had a great employer that gave him the time off without any risk to his job. Thanks to a change in the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), most families of National Guard and Reserve called to active duty will no longer have to count on being "lucky" in order to avoid risking job loss. If the family member's employer is covered by FMLA and the employee meets the length of employment qualifications for FMLA, the employee will be eligible for job protection for just the kind of needs Jim experienced.

IMPORTANT NEW TERMS:

In January 2008, FMLA was amended to provide that an eligible employee may take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave if the employee's spouse, child or parent is on active duty in the military or is a reservist who faces recall to active duty if a "qualifying exigency" exists. Qualifying exigencies are those needs of family members that arise directly due to the covered service member's deployment or active service. However employers were not required to provide this type of leave until the federal Department of Labor (D O L) issued final regulations defining qualifying exigency.

With approved federal regulations published in November 2008, DOL has now defined the term qualifying exigency by providing a non-exhaustive list of the types of circumstances that will qualify. Employers should be aware of the type of circumstances that will trigger obligations and also aware of which employees are eligible under this new provision. The new regulations state that to be eligible for this type of leave, the employee's family member must be a member of the National Guard or Reserves when called to active duty and not already on active duty. Leave is not available for a covered service member already on active...