0
law-books2

The Wage & Hour (W&H) Division of the US DOL has issued its third “Administrator’s Interpretation” (No. 2010-3), this time to clarifying that a parent of a “son or daughter” under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) includes an employee who is acting in loco parentis to the child. The W&H interpretation indicates that a person acting in loco parentis is “a person who has put himself in the situation of a lawful parent by assuming the obligations incident to the parental relation without going through the formalities necessary to legal adoption.” The interpretation indicates that the FMLA does not restrict the number or sex of parents that a child can have. For example, a child of a same sex couple could have a biological mother, biological father, and another mother acting in loco parentis.

Under the FMLA, a work-site employer must have at least 50 or more employees within a 75- mile radius of the employee in question to be required to provide FMLA by federal law.