Title: Labor Leave Act
Policy area: Labor and Employment

Summary:
Labor Leave Act
This bill requires an employer to maintain an employee's health care coverage during any period the employee takes family and medical leave when the employer engages in a lockout during the period of leave. (In this bill, "lockout" means a labor dispute involving a work stoppage, in which an employer withholds work from its employees in order to gain a concession from the employees.)

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1549 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1549

   To amend the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 to ensure that 
  employees on leave under the Act maintain health coverage during an 
                           employer lockout.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 20, 2019

  Mr. Tester introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
  referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To amend the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 to ensure that 
  employees on leave under the Act maintain health coverage during an 
                           employer lockout.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Labor Leave Act''.

SEC. 2. MAINTENANCE OF EMPLOYEE BENEFITS DURING AN EMPLOYER LOCKOUT.

    (a) Coverage.--Section 104(c)(1) of the Family and Medical Leave 
Act of 1993 (29 U.S.C. 2614(c)(1)) is amended--
            (1) by striking ``Except'' and inserting the following:
                    ``(A) In general.--Except'';
            (2) by striking the period and inserting ``and shall 
        maintain the coverage in a situation in which the employer 
        engages in a lockout during the leave period.''; and
            (3) by adding at the end the following:
                    ``(B) Changes in health benefits or plans.--Except 
                with respect to a change that results from a lockout 
                described in subparagraph (A)--
                            ``(i) if an employer provides a new health 
                        plan or benefits or changes a health plan or 
                        benefits while an employee is on leave under 
                        section 102, the employee is entitled to the 
                        new or changed plan or benefits to the same 
                        extent as the employee would be if the employee 
                        were not on leave; and
                            ``(ii) any change to a health plan, such as 
                        a change in coverage or to a premium or 
                        deductible, that applies to all employees of 
                        the employer's workforce on that plan, also 
                        applies to an employee enrolled under the plan 
                        and on leave under section 102.
                    ``(C) Definition.--In this paragraph, the term 
                `lockout' means a labor dispute involving a work 
                stoppage, in which an employer withholds work from its 
                employees in order to gain a concession from the 
                employees.''.

SEC. 3. EFFECTIVE DATE.

    (a) In General.--This Act, including the amendment made by this 
Act, takes effect on the date of enactment of this Act.
    (b) Regulations.--Not later than 120 days after the date of 
enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Labor shall issue amended 
regulations under title I of the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 
(29 U.S.C. 2611 et seq.), taking into account the amendments made by 
this Act.
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