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Will this be the year that a federal law will require employers to provide some form of paid leave for workers? It’s too early to tell for certain, but there’s an increasing chance it might happen during the off-year midterm elections as pressure mounts on so-called affordability issues.

The Biden administration nixed the program largely because it allowed employers to avoid penalties and the doubling of unpaid wages the FLSA allows the DOL to assess for violations if only they confessed to their mistakes and told the DOL. PAID is now back and open to employers who want to resolve FLSA problems as well as FMLA issues.

Consider this scenario, another in a long line of examples showcasing why FMLA intermittent leave poses a major headache for employers but is a law with which they must comply.

An employee was injured on the job and must be out for surgery as a result of that injury. He is receiving the surgery and paid time off under our workers’ compensation policy. Can we run his FMLA leave concurrent with his workers’ comp leave and make him use his paid time off as part of his FMLA leave?

Two new opinion letters address FMLA leave during company closure and travel to and from medical appointments.

Recently, EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas announced that one of the agency’s priorities for 2026 is supporting pregnant employees in their efforts to remain on the job during and after pregnancy. Although she expects the agency to narrow the scope of regulations under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, that does not mean the EEOC isn’t aggressively going after employers that aren’t in full compliance with that law.

Employers can’t interfere with the right of an employee to take FMLA leave if that employee qualifies. But what if the employee has documented performance problems prior to leave? Can the employer still discipline the employee if that discipline would have been appropriate had the employee not requested leave?

I have an exempt team member who is on approved FMLA. The employee reported to work during the approved time out of the office and worked for an hour and a half. Are we required to pay this individual for a full eight hours?

Can you please go over the fitness-for-duty process for employees returning from FMLA leave? We want to make sure our employees are ready and able to perform all their essential functions again after their FMLA time off.

Nothing says Happy New Year better than a raft of opinion letters from the Department of Labor. The letters cover the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act.