[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 29, Volume 3]
[Revised as of July 1, 2005]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 29CFR825.101]

[Page 749-750]
 
                             TITLE 29--LABOR
 
         CHAPTER V--WAGE AND HOUR DIVISION, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
 
PART 825_THE FAMILY AND MEDICAL LEAVE ACT OF 1993--Table of Contents
 
Subpart A_What is the Family and Medical Leave Act, and to Whom Does It 
                                 Apply?
 
Sec. 825.101  What is the purpose of the Act?

    (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

[[Page 750]]

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.