The U.S. Department of Labor recently issued new Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”) regulations that will take effect on March 8, 2013.  The new regulations expand the FMLA’s protections to provide families of eligible veterans the same job-protected leave available to families of service members, and expand leave opportunities for family members when a service member is deployed.  Additionally, the regulations expand and clarify the application of the FMLA to airline personnel and flight crews.

The regulations also require covered employers to post a new, updated poster by March 8, 2013.  Employers may start using the new poster immediately or they may continue to use their existing FMLA poster through March 7, 2013.  The new poster can be found here: http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/posters/fmlaen.pdf.

In addition to updating their FMLA posters by March 8, covered employers should contact their labor and employment counsel to ensure that their leave policies comply with the new FMLA regulations.