Now no one can say they didn't know this was a political post :)

Bush is, of course, pushing through all kinds of executive orders before the 60 day deadline, which is next Friday. This will make it much harder for Obama to undo them. There's a multitide of them, many undoing environmental regulations, limiting abortion access, etc.

The one I want to vent about today is regarding the Family and Medical Leave Act. This was already a pretty weak way to allow people to take leave from their jobs for pressing medical or family concerns, considering that for many people 12 weeks of UNPAID leave is pretty damn impossible. This new proposal, which will likely be enacted, will allow employers to refuse to let employees use any PAID vacation time before going onto FMLA.

How bad does that suck?? You've EARNED vacation time but can be denied the right to use it? The law already exempts small employers from allowing any FMLA leave, so some protection for small businesses is already in place. With the economy in the tank, people who need to care for sick children or parents or take time off for their own medical needs will be increasingly unable to do so without risk of permanently losing their jobs.

Republicans suck.

That does suck. How is that even legal?

In my experiences with FMLA, I found it full of loopholes. I tried to access it twice -- after the birth of both my sons. In the first case, I had been with the employer for over 3 years, but although the employer was a national company with thousands of employees, they did not have to participate in FMLA because we had less than 75 employees within a 50 mile radius (I lived in Hawaii -- the ocean sort of interfers with your populated radius there). In the 2nd case, after the birth of the 2nd son, the company met all the requirements (number of employees within a radius, etc.), but I didn't. I had switched jobs by then, and had was literally short by about 2 weeks of work so I didn't qualify.

I ended up taking three months of leave with each kid (the first time I planned that, the 2nd time I didn't make it to the top of the childcare waiting list before then) and both times I stressed about whether or not I'd have a job to go back to.

In both cases, I got disability pay for the first 6 weeks (2/3 of my base pay), but that is not intended for "family care" per se, that is something you get because you are recovering from childbirth -- so that doesn't apply in every need for family leave.

Its a flawed system at best and the last hting they need to do is screw it up anymore.

I was really lucky when I had Taylor. I'd been with the bank almost five years, so I got eight paid weeks (not at 100% for the whole time, though)and three unpaid, but I also broke my back when he was two weeks old, so I had to FMLA. I really should have stayed out longer.

And if they had told me I couldn't use my vacation time, I would have told them to F right off.

Bush sucks.

Hey Ellie, it's not everyday that you read "I was really lucky . . . I broke my back." You must really be a glass-half-full kind of person.

Ruth, I am so angry now. Thanks. And I searched the web for info, and this news is only available in weird pockets -- I found it at the postal workers site.

MSNBC thinks it's more important to tell us that falling gas prices are bad news. I don't know, having gas prices fall from $5 to $2.50 means an extra $300 a month for me.

Bush would do less damage if he would do nothing. This is gratuitous violence against working people.

Bush is the biggest fuckwad, dickfaced, lying, shit-eater that ever lived. I used to be a republican, but now I'm not. Mainly because if that cunt-head of a president.

I did a brief search to find more info and couldn't really come up with anything. If they thought it was going to be a generally popular change, like giving you more than 12 weeks or making part of it paid, they would have plastered articles about it all over the news. As it is, they know better, which means they know it isn't in our best interest.

So why does Bush want to do it? You think he'd be trying to improve his reputation before he goes out of office, not dig himself deeper. There's got to be some sort of reasoning behind the change, and I don't think it's just because he's intentionally trying to screw people over. Any ideas?

NOT saying I think it's a good thing AT ALL, just trying to understand.

I wonder if you'd be allowed to take your unpaid FMLA leave and then, when that's used up, tack your paid vacation onto the end of it? I'll bet not.

I think Republicans try to justify this stuff by claiming that if they can help the companies save money, the companies (you know, out of the goodness of their hearts) will take those savings and pass them along to the well-being of their employees.

I worked for a Fortune 500 and I'll just say this has NOT been my experience. They have excellent legal departments to figure out how to screw you over to the very last limits the law will allow. It's all built into the system.

If you have a kind and understanding manager, their hands are still tied. And if you have a petty, vindictive, micromanaging manager, they can use that system to screw you even more. Ask the guy who was penalized for going to his cancer treatments. Or ask me, the woman who was penalizd for visitng her dying grandfather and bullied into missing his funeral.

I'll stop here before this devolves into a nail-spitting rant.

my last two semesters in law school i worked on a legal help line answering questions about FMLA and family/pregnancy leave. I AM SO PISSED about these changes. seriously, this is going to hurt so many people, and it's not really being reported anywhere.
floor pie's analysis of employer behavior is so right granted, i got calls from people who needed help; those with good managers tended not to call us. but you'd be surprised how many people *thought* they had a good situation only to have it go bad. and how many managers thought they could "only" provide the baseline 12 weeks to employees, or "couldn't" provide any leave because they don't have 50+ employees- hello, people, it's meant to be a bottom floor, not a ceiling. you can give people as much leave as you want- "want" being the key word there.
sorry, i know there are some HR folks on here, and i'm sure you're very nice people, but it can be a twisted business.

At least Bush will chuckle like a weirdo while he fucks you in the ass.

It doesn't really help employers either though because then they have all that unused vacation pay sitting on their books as a liability, and they'll have to pay it out at some point or another anyway. WTF?

T-rex - NO! HALF EMPTY! IT'S HALF EMPTY! I am pretty meh about breaking my back, because it was my own stupid fault. I threw myself down the stairs. Idiot. I got lots of pretty pills and big herkin' shots for a very long time, and my back is okay now.

Why can't Obama just issue an executive order terminating the previous ones? I know about the 60 day rule, but that doesn't stop him from striking it down, either.