Question

The USA is among the worst of all nations when it comes to mandating family leave upon the birth or adoption of a child.

1. What are the benefits (developmental, social, economic, etc) for the family and society of a government- or business-sponsred plan to provide leave for family members?

2. What can you find out about the current state of the family and medical leave Act(FMLA), as it was introduced to Congress in December 2013 and already well-established in some states like California?

3. What about paternal leave? Where is the U.S vs other nations on this matter?

Answer 1

1.The benefits for the family and society of a government to provide leave for family members are:-

- to provide proper care of the child like breastfeeding etc

- for proper rest of the mother after delivery to avoid hemorrhage , infection etc

- child's less chance of being sick due to proper care provided during the initial days of birth like immunity is provided by the breast milk

- for the provision of well developed and grown generation for the society and they will contribute to the success of the country .

2. The current Family and Medical Leave Act (1993) is an act which provides family and temporary medical leave . It is a united states laws that provide employees with job protected and unpaid leave for qualified medical and family reasons . The eligibility to these leave are :-

The employee must work for 12months before taking family and medical leave and should have worked for 1250 hours for these 12months .

3. Paternal leave - The civil servants are entitled to paternity leave. A male civil servant (including an apprentice, probationer) with less than two surviving children, may be granted Paternity Leave for a period of 15 days before or up to six months from the date of delivery of the child.

In United States under the FMLA, most new parents can take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave without the threat of job loss .Employees qualify for leave under the FMLA when they’ve worked 1,240 hours over 12 months at a company that employs more than 50 people.