November 2008

On November 17, 2008, the Department of Labor (“DOL”) published its long-awaited revisions to regulations interpreting the Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”). As originally enacted in 1993, the FMLA provided employees meeting certain eligibility criteria with the right to take up to twelve weeks of job-protected unpaid leave during a twelve-month period for four specified family and medical reasons. In January 2008, the FMLA was amended to add new leave rights for military families. The new regulations address the 2008 amendments to the FMLA and make significant (and in many instances, employer-friendly) changes to the existing regulations that have guided employers and the courts since they were first issued in 1995.

Continue Reading Department of Labor Issues Revisions to Family and Medical Leave Act Regulations

Last night a child cried himself to sleep in Tutu as he had no supper.  A mother in William’s Delight agonizes over having to choose between paying her WAPA bill or putting food on her family’s table.  A senior couple faced with an every shrinking fixed income and escalating costs has to forego their lunch every day to pay prescription costs.   These are the tales of hunger in America’s Paradise, the U.S. Virgin Islands. 

This week, November 16-22, 2008, Governor John P. deJongh has declared as Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week in the Territory.  In a land of plenty, there is no good reason for people to be hungry. Continue Reading Ending Hunger in the Virgin Islands