S. 1422: A bill to amend the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 to clarify the eligibility requirements with respect to airline flight crews

January 4, 2010 at 9:18 am | Posted in Aviation Law | Leave a comment

by P.J. Blount with the blog faculty

S. 1422: A bill to amend the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 to clarify the eligibility requirements with respect to airline flight crews was signed by the President on December 21, 2009. The final act (Public Law No: 111-119) states:

One Hundred Eleventh Congress

of the

United States of America

AT THE FIRST SESSION

Begun and held at the City of Washington on Tuesday,

the sixth day of January, two thousand and nine

An Act

To amend the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 to clarify the eligibility requirements with respect to airline flight crews.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Airline Flight Crew Technical Corrections Act’.

SEC. 2. LEAVE REQUIREMENT FOR AIRLINE FLIGHT CREWS.

(a) Inclusion of Airline Flight Crews- Section 101(2) of the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (29 U.S.C. 2611(2)) is amended by adding at the end the following:

`(D) AIRLINE FLIGHT CREWS-

`(i) DETERMINATION- For purposes of determining whether an employee who is a flight attendant or flight crewmember (as such terms are defined in regulations of the Federal Aviation Administration) meets the hours of service requirement specified in subparagraph (A)(ii), the employee will be considered to meet the requirement if–

`(I) the employee has worked or been paid for not less than 60 percent of the applicable total monthly guarantee, or the equivalent, for the previous 12-month period, for or by the employer with respect to whom leave is requested under section 102; and

`(II) the employee has worked or been paid for not less than 504 hours (not counting personal commute time or time spent on vacation leave or medical or sick leave) during the previous 12-month period, for or by that employer.

`(ii) FILE- Each employer of an employee described in clause (i) shall maintain on file with the Secretary (in accordance with such regulations as the Secretary may prescribe) containing information specifying the applicable monthly guarantee with respect to each category of employee to which such guarantee applies.

`(iii) DEFINITION- In this subparagraph, the term `applicable monthly guarantee’ means–

`(I) for an employee described in clause (i) other than an employee on reserve status, the minimum number of hours for which an employer has agreed to schedule such employee for any given month; and

`(II) for an employee described in clause (i) who is on reserve status, the number of hours for which an employer has agreed to pay such employee on reserve status for any given month,

as established in the applicable collective bargaining agreement or, if none exists, in the employer’s policies.’.

(b) Calculation of Leave for Airline Flight Crews- Section 102(a) of the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (29 U.S.C. 2612(a)) is amended by adding at the end the following:

`(5) CALCULATION OF LEAVE FOR AIRLINE FLIGHT CREWS- The Secretary may provide, by regulation, a method for calculating the leave described in paragraph (1) with respect to employees described in section 101(2)(D).’.

Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Vice President of the United States and

President of the Senate.