Federal Employees with Same-Sex Marriages to Benefit from FMLA

OPM has recently announced that federal employees with same-sex marriages will now be given the FMLA leaves like employees who have opposite sex marriages. The agency started to amend this rule since 2014 but it has now been implemented across all states.

Supreme Court Ruling that led to Federal Employees Benefit

The change was initiated by OPM only after a Supreme Court ruling of June 2013. In this ruling, the court struck down the Section 3 of Defense of Marriage Act and changed the definition of spouse. It said that the new definition allows federal employees who have same-sex marriages to use FMLA leave like the employees who don’t have same-sex marriages. This final rule was laid out in an April 8 Federal Register posting by the OPM.

The Slow Change

OPM had begun the amendment process in 2014 and it was only then it opened the process to comment. This new ruling of the agency would help in letting go of the sexual orientation discrimination loophole.

Details of the FLMA

The FLMA allows the federal employees to enjoy job-protected and unpaid leaves for pre-defined medical and family reasons. It also offers health insurance coverage during the period of leave to the eligible candidates. The maximum limit of this type of leave is 12 weeks.

The situations in which these leaves are applicable are listed here:

• The placement of a foster child
• The placement of an adopted child
• The birth of a child
• To take care of a spouse or dependent who has a serious health condition
• To take rest when a serious health condition is making the employee unable to do the job
• To take care of the household or its members if the family responsibilities have increased due to a family member’s active service in the military

The federal employees are also allowed to take a leave of up to 26 weeks to take care of a covered service member who is dealing with a serious injury.

Other Changes

Apart from the changes made into the same-sex marriage rules of the federal employees, OPM is also making many other rule changes. These are with regard to the safety requirements for onshore gas pipelines and the regulations for electric power and natural gas contracts. All these regulations would take effect within a time span of 30 days.