Working Parents Get Some Virus-Leave Leeway in Revised DOL Rule

Working parents whose children have hybrid school schedules due to the pandemic don’t need their employers’ permission to take federal leave, the U.S. Labor Department said.

That type of reduced-schedule leave under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act doesn’t qualify as “intermittent leave,” DOL said in a revised rule that takes effect Wednesday. Unlike leave to care for a child in a school that blends at-home and in-class instruction, periodically taking leave under the virus law for other reasons must first be authorized by a worker’s employer, according to the rule.

The Labor Department amended its April regulation on coronavirus ...