Air Force Memorial in Arlington, VA
Air Force Memorial in Arlington, VA

UPDATED

Continuing to recap various employment law bills out of the Connecticut General Assembly, the legislature passed a measure Wednesday night that brings Connecticut’s FMLA law more in line with the federal counterpart.

The federal FMLA was amended back in 2008 (prior post on the subject here) to provide coverage for any “qualifying exigency” arising out of the fact that the spouse, son or daughter, or parent of the employee is on active duty or has been notified of an impending call to order in the armed forces.  Regulations were put in place as well.

The new Connecticut rule — which will go into effect immediately upon the Governor’s signature — covers that same type of qualifying exigency. Indeed, it defines such an exigency by reference to the U.S. Department of Labor’s regulations on that very subject.

What this means is that employees in Connecticut will now have 16 weeks over a 24 month period for such a leave.  You can review Senate Bill 262 here.

The new rule, however, is not a mirror image of the federal counterpart but brings its nearly up to date with it. And as readers will recall, there is a 26 week period for caregiver leave also in place in Connecticut as a result of P.A. 09-70 back in 2009.

Ultimately, employers in Connecticut will have to update their FMLA policies and procedures to account for this leave, if you haven’t been allowing military leaves under CTFMLA.

And while it’s obviously important to support the military and those that serve — the confusing and overlapping laws on the subject don’t make it easy for employers who want to do right by their employees.