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On January 28, 2008, President Bush signed the 2008 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). It expands the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) in two significant ways for families of injured military service members and those called to active duty.

First, effective immediately, the NDAA requires employers to provide up to 26-weeks of unpaid leave in a 12-month period to the spouse, son, daughter, parent or next-of-kin of a service member injured in the line of duty.

Second, the NDAA entitles the spouse, son, daughter or parent of a military service member on active duty, or on notice of an impending call to active duty, up to 12-weeks of unpaid leave in a 12 month period based on “any qualifying exigency”. However, this provision will not become effective until the Department of Labor (DOL) issues final regulation defining a “qualifying exigency”. The DOL’s website now “encourages” employers to provide such leave to eligible employees until it issues the final regulations.

In order to qualify for leave pursuant to the NDAA amendments, an employee still must comply with other provisions of the FMLA (be employed for at least a total of 12 months and worked at least 1250 hours in the previous 12-month period for an employer with 50 or more employees). Note, also, that if an employee requests FMLA leave to care for an injured service member and that employee has already taken FMLA leave in the past 12 months, the 26-week leave period will be reduced by the amount of leave previously taken.

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SHRM.org reports that thirty-nine percent of employees working full time have called in sick in the past to score a day off during the summer, and 30 percent will or might do so this summer, according to a survey of 2,021 U.S. workers. The two biggest reasons employees take “sick days” in the summer, according to research firm Harris Interactive, are to take a “mental health day” or “to enjoy the weather on a nice day”.

Employer strategies that workers said would most likely prevent them from misusing sick days during the summer were:

• Provide half or full day Fridays off during the summer (utilizing a compressed workweek).
• Provide flexibility through telecommuting or flex-time.
• Provide Paid Time Off plans that give employees a bank of time to use at their discretion.

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A report released by The Conference Board states nonprofits will be hit particularly hard by the approaching retirement of baby boomers.

Many nonprofits—especially small and midsize ones—lack the “staffing depth to develop younger leaders coming up in the organization,” as well as time and money, Jill Casner-Lotto writes in the report.

By 2016, nonprofits will need 640,000 new senior managers and will need to recruit 80,000 new professional and management staff, according to Diane Piktialis, leader of The Conference Board’s Mature Workforce Program.

The report says that hiring people over age 50 for part-time work could fill the leadership gap, as many boomers are expected to work beyond retirement age and many are considering nonprofit work as “encore” jobs that allow them to utilize their experience to give back to the community.

For more information on the report, visit The Conference Board.

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