Connecticut Employment Lawyer & Attorney : Daniel Schwartz : Stamford, Hartford New Haven, CT

Since I'm only by a computer for a few minutes this morning -- still vacationing -- I wanted to just highlight a few points from my brief post yesterday afternoon on the expected veto of the bill that contained the expanded leave for military families. 

First, if you haven't done so, you should check out two blogs that commented on this blog and my post:  Michael Fox's Jottings by an Employer's Lawyer (long my go-to-resource before I got into blogging myself) and Workplace Horizons (which is a critical resource on all the legislative bills addressing labor & employment laws).  I'm grateful for their kind words this morning.   Both have had detailed summaries of the Military Leave FMLA provisions and other significant bills and I urge you to check them out.

Second, in my haste, I failed to highlight that, with Congress out of session, President Bush is exercising his pocket veto -- meaning Congress will have to take this issue up anew when they restart in January.

As the Washington Post reports:

Because Congress is not in session, Bush is barred by the Constitution from issuing a traditional veto and returning it to lawmakers, according to White House officials. Instead, according to a senior official, Bush plans to execute a "pocket veto," meaning he will not sign the measure -- requiring lawmakers to write and pass an entirely new version of the bill when they return.

To block efforts by Congress to challenge the pocket veto, however, Bush is also going the traditional route, sending over to Congress his veto message and the unsigned bill.

Third, the White House's statements and reasoning for the pocket veto -- which has nothing to do with the FMLA provision itself -- can be found at the website here.  The veto took place this morning

(And for those who are interested, the photo is of a replica of Congress made out of natural materials now on display at the U.S. Botanic Gardens in Washington, DC where I've been visiting on vacation.)

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On Friday, Congress passed the first significant amendments to the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) in over a decade.  The Bill still needs to be signed by President Bush in order for it to become effective. 

The new bill, which has yet to be signed by President Bush, creates an additional category for the traditional 12 week leave. Specifically, an employee may take 12 weeks leave, where the spouse, or a son, daughter, or parent of the employee is on active duty (or has been notified of an impending call or order to active duty) in the Armed Forces in support of a contingency operation and there is a "qualifying exigency" which is to be defined by the Secretary of Labor by regulation.

In addition, and in an unique approach to leave issues, Congress has also created a "Servicemember Family Leave" where an eligible employee who is the spouse, son, daughter, parent, or next of kin of an injured servicemember needs to take care of them. The employee in this situation is entitled to 26 weeks leave.  This appears to be a one-time only leave. 

For Connecticut employers, this new bill will only add to the confusion over which leave (state or federal) applies. For the time being (and when signed by President Bush), this new leave will only apply to those employers covered under the Federal FMLA laws, not the state. 

Note that this expanded leave section is part of an overall military spending package.  There remains the possibility of a veto on it so employers should keep checking back for final approval and an effective date.

The legislation had been introduced by Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and he expressed his pleasure with its passage in a statement on Friday. 

"By passing this important legislation we will protect family members' rights to keep their jobs when they are providing important care and we will ensure that our injured troops receive the comfort and attention that they need," he said. 

According to the roll call, Dodd was absent from the final vote on the conference report on Friday. 

(Hat Tip: Jottings by an Employer's Lawyer)

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