Catherwood LibraryILR School

After soliciting 15,000 comments about the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Labor Department will issue a report today concluding that the public likes the law, but corporate America has big problems with it. The 14-year-old law gave employees at workplaces with 50 or more workers the right to take up to 12 unpaid weeks a year to cope with their own serious health condition or to care for a newborn, a newly adopted child or a seriously ill spouse, parent or child. If they had any criticism, many workers said, it was that the law does not allow for longer leaves and that it does not provide paid leave, the way many European countries do. However, many businesses complained that the Labor Department?s definition of a serious health condition enabling workers to take leave was unclear and too generous.