“We thank President Obama for signing the Airline Flight Crew Technical Corrections Act into law today, and in doing so closing a loophole that for too long had excluded many airline workers from Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) protections.

Sixteen years after the FMLA was enacted, flight attendants and other airline employees will finally have the family and medical leave they deserve. This is excellent news and an overdue and well-deserved victory for working families in the airline industry.

Airline employees calculate their hours differently than most employees, because of the unique nature of their work. However, the FMLA was written in a way that made it difficult for them to meet the required minimum number of hours worked to be eligible to take leave. The Airline Flight Crew Technical Corrections Act now corrects this.

The National Partnership for Women & Families joins with our partners at the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA in thanking the President and Members of Congress for recognizing the need for this critical technical correction, and ensuring that the FMLA will work for airline employees, as Congress intended. This new law is a victory we can all celebrate.”