Passed in 1993 at Bill Clinton’s urging, the Family and Medical Leave Act intrudes in labor contracts by mandating that employers who have at least 50 workers provide unpaid leave to workers who want to be off the job for up to 12 weeks for family and medical reasons.
I thought it was a bad idea (not to mention unconstitutional) for Congress to meddle in employment contracts back then. It was obvious that this system would be abused, and would also be under pressure for expansion. Why not all companies? Why not require that the leave be paid?
Today’s Wall Street Journal has an excellent editorial on this issue. Turns out that it is being abused, so the Department of Labor is trying to rein in that problem. Also, Democrats in Congress are pushing to expand the law.
Nothing in the Constitution gives Congress power to dictate the terms of contracts. This is another of the hundreds of nasty issues that would not be political issues at all if we had stuck with the origial understanding of the limits on governmental power.
