June 20, 2013, Introduced by Senators GREGORY, ANANICH, HOOD, YOUNG, BIEDA, SMITH, HOPGOOD, ANDERSON, WHITMER, WARREN and HUNTER and referred to the Committee on Veterans, Military Affairs and Homeland Security.
A bill to provide for family military leave from employment
for the spouse of an individual deployed in active military service
under certain conditions; to prohibit retaliation for use of family
military leave; and to prescribe remedies.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT:
Sec. 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the
"family military leave act".
Sec. 3. As used in this act:
(a) "Active duty" does not include active duty for training.
(b) "Armed forces of the United States" means all components,
including reserve and national guard components, of the United
States army, navy, air force, marine corps, and coast guard.
(c) "Benefits" means employment benefits, other than salary or
wages, that the employer normally provides or makes available to
employees, such as medical insurance, disability insurance, life
insurance, pension plan, or retirement plan.
(d) "Employee" means an individual who works an average of 20
or more hours per week for an employer under an express or implied
contract of hire, but does not include an independent contractor.
(e) "Employer" means an individual, partnership, corporation,
association, or other business entity that employs 15 or more
employees, and includes the state and a unit of local government.
(f) "Family military leave" means time off from work while the
employee's spouse is deployed or on leave from deployment in the
armed forces of the United States during a period of military
conflict.
(g) "Period of military conflict" means a period of war
declared by the United States congress, declared by executive order
of the president, or in which a member of a reserve component of
the armed forces is ordered to active duty pursuant to either 10
USC 12301 and 10 USC 12302 or title 32 of the United States Code.
Sec. 5. An employer shall allow an employee up to the lesser
of 20 days or 160 hours of family military leave per deployment
during a period of military conflict if all of the following
conditions are met:
(a) The employee has been employed by the employer for at
least 12 months and for at least 1,250 hours during the immediately
preceding 12 months.
(b) The employee is the spouse of an individual who is a
member of the armed forces of the United States or a member of 1 of
the reserve components of the armed forces of the United States who
is called into active duty in the armed forces of the United
States.
(c) Within 5 days after the employee receives official notice
of an impending call to active duty or of a leave from deployment,
the employee gives notice to the employer that the employee intends
to take family military leave.
Sec. 7. The employer may require an employee requesting family
military leave to provide certification from the proper military
authority to verify the employee's eligibility.
Sec. 9. (1) An employer shall continue to provide existing
benefits to the employee during family military leave, and the
employee is responsible for the same proportion of the cost of
those benefits as the employee paid before the leave period. The
employer is not required to pay salary or wages to the employee
while on family military leave.
(2) After use of the employee's family military leave, the
employer shall restore the employee to his or her position or to a
position with at least equivalent seniority, benefits, pay, and
other terms and conditions of employment.
Sec. 11. (1) An employer shall not interfere with, restrain,
or deny the exercise or attempted exercise of a right provided
under this act.
(2) An employer shall not discharge, fine, suspend, expel,
discipline, or discriminate against an employee with respect to any
term or condition of employment because of the employee's actual or
potential exercise, or support for another employee's exercise, of
any right under this act. This subsection does not prevent an
employer from taking employment action that is independent of the
exercise of a right under this act.
(3) An employer shall not deprive an employee who uses family
military leave of any employment benefit that accrued before the
date the family military leave begins.
Sec. 13. This act does not affect an employer's obligation to
comply with any collective bargaining agreement or employee benefit
plan that provides greater leave rights to employees than provided
under this act.
Sec. 15. (1) An employer shall not require an employee to
waive rights under this act.
(2) An employee's rights under this act cannot be waived or
diminished under a term in a collective bargaining agreement or
employee benefit plan that takes effect after the effective date of
this act.
Sec. 17. An individual aggrieved by a violation of this act
may bring an action in the circuit court to enjoin the violation or
for any other relief necessary to secure a right under this act.