LIT 1 TASK 2
Situation 1
In 1993 President Bill Clinton established the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).Employees who qualify may take a leave of absence from their occupation. This is managed by the Wage and Hour Division of the United States Department of Labor. The following people are allowed time off based off the reasons listed below
Twelve workweeks if:
• The Employee has a child/baby, and/or needs to take care of newborn infant or baby within one year of birth
• If an employee chooses to adopt a child or is entrusted with becoming a foster parent. The employee shall also be able to request a temporary leave to care for the child within one year time frame of placement.
• Employee may also be eligible if they need to take care of child, spouse, or parent with any type of serious medical condition.
• If employee is not able to perform everyday tasks at his/her occupation due to serious health/medical conditions
• If the employee’s child such as the son or daughter or spouse is active in the military, they are covered as well.

Or:
 Twenty-six work weeks of leave during a single 12-month period to care for a covered service member with a serious injury or illness if the eligible employee is the service member’s spouse, son, daughter, parent, or next of kin (military caregiver leave). ("USDOL," n.d., para. 3)

This leave of absence will be unpaid, however job protection is a benefit, and the employee will be covered under identical group health insurance coverage. The minute the worker returns, he/she will be able to carry on working under their previous wage and previous conditions as prior to leaving.
An FMLA employee who is eligible, that has been employed with the company for a minimum of twelve months, and worked at least 1,250 hours over the course of 1 year or 12 months. The company that the employee works for must have fifty or more employees within a 75 mile radius from that particular location.

In Situation 1 Employee 1 shall be a qualified employee to take a twelve week leave under the FMLA. This particular employee has been with Company X for twenty-four months, and the company has over seventy five employees. The employee’s position ensures that they qualify for an FMLA leave, since his spouse gave birth. Upper management followed the law by permitting this member of staff to return to his former position with the same salary. Management does not have to provide the employee with the salary missed during the employee’s eleven week leave of absence, since the FMLA leave is an unpaid one and doesn’t require employer to pay. However the company may decide to pay the employee any sick time or vacation time that the employee might have accumulated during his or her employment.
Situation 2
The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) was established by former President Lyndon Johnson in 1967. This bill was established to protect job applicants and employees, whose age is equal to or exceeds that of 40 years old. Its exact purpose is to avoid age discrimination in hiring, wages, promotions, layoffs and receiving benefits. This law also forbids retaliation against someone who chooses to protest against employment practices that are in direct violation of the ADEA. The law applies to labor organizations, government agencies that have twenty or more employees.
Some allowances to ADEA include:
• Employers may ask their employees to sign a consent form and relinquish their rights under ADEA in exchange for compensatory consideration. This has to be done in writing, must be specific to ADEA, and the person must be given the option to speak to a lawyer before signing the waiver.
• Subsequently providing benefits for workers older in age, it might become more expensive for employers; companies should reduce the benefits workers that are more seasoned to match the cost of providing benefits to workers younger in age.
• Employers are permitted to favor an elder applicant / employee, even if could possibly affect another co-worker who is 40 years old or older.
• Employers are allowed to put ads with age restrictions if the age is realistically essential to the regular operation of the business. This is often a rarity and doesn’t occur often.
• Employers may ask a candidate/applicant about her or his age when asking falls under lawful pretenses.

In Situation 2 Employee B is suitable to be protected by the law of the ADEA. Being that he is over forty years of age, and the business has more than twenty employees. The worker was left without a promotion because of age, even with this person receiving well above standards in a performance review. Company X is in violation of the law under ADEA rules because they promoted a thirty-two year old worker instead of Employee B, naming the age factor as reasoning behind the snub.

Situation 3
The Americans with Disabilities Act protects employees and applicants with disabilities (physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity) against discrimination in the work place. Companies, including private employers, state and local governments, employment agencies, labor organizations, and labor-management committees all have to abide by the ADA laws. Employers with 25 or more employees were covered as of July 26, 1992. Employers with 15 or more employees were covered as of July 26, 1994.
Workers are secure under ADA law if the person has major deficiencies, which can limit regular life events, such as walking, hearing, seeing and speaking. The employee also needs to be capable of the job at hand, including requiring sufficient education, knowledge and experience, being capable of all the duties necessary for the job. These duties will have to be done without any type of special accommodation in most instances. Special accommodations may include; devices, rescheduling, adjusting rules and policies, etc. The employer will have to include accommodations to a disabled employee or applicant who is well qualified for the job role/position. An allowance shall be approved if the employer could justify that making certain modifications would be too costly and difficult to provide. In this situation, the applicant or employee who is disabled can choose to provide accommodations or pay for her or himself.
During the interview process, employers are not allowed to ask about a potential employee disability. They are allowed to ask if this potential candidate can perform all duties and tasks asked of them without any assistance. After an official offer has been submitted, a physical can be requested by the employer. To avoid discrimination the physical has to be standard protocol.
In Situation 3 Employee C has been denied a job with Company X due to the fact that the company was not able to provide accommodations necessary for the employee to perform the necessary duties of the job. ADA can protect this employee due to his walking disability. The company did have the right to question the worker because going up the elevator in the building is a required task of the job. If the company were to move the elevator buttons, that would of caused a hardship in the company. I honestly believe that making minor changes to the elevator would not have been an undue hardship that can employ 75 employees. If the company could possibly prove undue hardship that goes beyond the benefit of employing this worker, the company could then have a valid reason for declining the potential employee. Still with all that being said, the company should have given the potential employee a chance to pay for the required changes for themselves if they can. By not offering these choices to the employee and considering them to be qualified for the job, it’s safe to say that the company broke the law under ADA guidelines and therefore shouldn’t have denied him employment.

References
USDOL. (n.d.). Wage and Hour Division (para.3). Retrieved from http://www.dol.gov/whd/fmla/#.UJHRs8VuT4Y