(a) FMLA is intended to allow employees to balance their work and
family life by taking reasonable unpaid leave for medical reasons, for
the birth or adoption of a child, and for the care of a child, spouse,
or parent who has a serious health condition. The Act is intended to
balance the demands of the workplace with the needs of families, to
promote the stability and economic security of families, and to promote
national interests in preserving family integrity. It was intended that
the Act accomplish these purposes in a manner that accommodates the
legitimate interests of employers, and in a manner consistent with the
Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment in minimizing the
potential for employment discrimination on the basis of sex, while
promoting equal employment opportunity for men and women.
(b) The enactment of FMLA was predicated on two fundamental
concerns--the needs of the American workforce, and the development of
high-performance organizations. Increasingly, America's children and
elderly are dependent upon family members who must spend long hours at
work. When a family emergency arises, requiring workers to attend to
seriously-ill children or parents, or to newly-born or adopted infants,
or even to their own serious illness, workers need reassurance that they
will not be asked to choose between continuing their employment, and
meeting their
personal and family obligations or tending to vital needs at home.
(c) The FMLA is both intended and expected to benefit employers as
well as their employees. A direct correlation exists between stability
in the family and productivity in the workplace. FMLA will encourage the
development of high-performance organizations. When workers can count on
durable links to their workplace they are able to make their own full
commitments to their jobs. The record of hearings on family and medical
leave indicate the powerful productive advantages of stable workplace
relationships, and the comparatively small costs of guaranteeing that
those relationships will not be dissolved while workers attend to
pressing family health obligations or their own serious illness.
