On November 10, 2009, the Senate passed the Airline Flight Crew Technical Corrections Act (S. 1422) by unanimous consent. This legislation will amend the Family and Medical Leave Act (”FMLA”) to expand protection for airline flight crews. The legislation clarifies that flight crews should be credited for all hours, not just hours spent during flight, when determining whether they have met the threshold for FMLA qualification. The FMLA provides employees who have worked at least 1,250 hours or 60 percent of a full-time work schedule in the previous year up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for certain medical reasons.

The Senate version of the bill was sponsored by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash).  An almost identical bill (H.R. 912) passed in the House on Feb. 9, 2009.