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Military Family Leave
Washington State Military Leave of Absence law
A new Washington State Military Family Leave law passed by the 2008 Legislature and effective June 12, 2008, allows an employee whose spouse is a member of the United States armed forces, national guard, or reserves who has been notified of an impending call or order to active duty, or who has been deployed, or when the military spouse is on leave from deployment, a total of fifteen days of unpaid leave per deployment.
Get more detailed information about this new law in this helpful fact sheet:
Leave for spouses of deployed military personnel (96 KB PDF).
New FMLA amendments for families of military personnel
On January 28, 2008, President Bush signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act. A section amended the federal Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) to provide eligible employees two new leave rights related to military service:
- New leave entitlement.
An eligible employee who is the spouse, son, daughter, parent, or next of kin of a covered service member who is recovering from a serious illness or injury sustained in the line of duty while on active duty is entitled to up to 26 weeks of leave in a single 12-month period to care for the service member. This provision became effective January 28, 2008. This military caregiver leave is available during “a single 12-month period” during which an eligible employee is entitled to a combined total of 26 weeks of all types of FMLA leave. - New qualifying reason for leave.
Eligible employees are entitled to up to 12 weeks of leave because of “any qualifying exigency” arising out of the fact that the spouse, son, daughter, or parent of the employee is on active duty, or has been notified of an impending call to active duty status in support of a contingency operation. This provision requires the Secretary of Labor to issue regulations defining “any qualifying exigency” before the regulation takes effect.
For related information:
Table
of Family Care and Family Leave Laws (102 KB PDF) - Provides a comparison of state
and federal laws regarding leave for pregnancy and other family care issues.
