FAMILY LEAVE ACT PUTS THE ARM ON BUSINESSES

The Family and Medical Leave Act is an example of what happens when lawmakers try to codify common sense. It is a measure kind in spirit but knotted with potential legal despair. It is regulation where decency should suffice. Above all, the act is another load on America's small businesses, which carry plenty of burden already.

Briefly described, the Family and Medical Leave Act, which goes into effect Thursday, reeks of innocent good intentions. What hard-hearted sorts could be against eligible employees taking up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave during any year to care for personal health conditions, newborns or newly adopted children, or for spouses, parents or children with serious medical conditions? The concept is supremely civilized. President Clinton, proud to make this the first act he signed into law (after two George Bush vetoes), said, "Now millions of our people will no longer have to choose between their jobs and their families." Missouri's U.S. Sen. Christopher Bond said much the same thing.

The rhetoric surpasses the circumstances. Have millions of Americans worked for companies that cut them loose because the workers wanted time to attend to their families? A 1990 U.S. Small Business Administration study found that as few as 30 percent of employers with more than 50 workers failed to offer some variety of job-guaranteed sick leave. We believe the vast majority of businesses understand the worth of a good employee, know the unproductive nature of "turning over" workers and extend common consideration to fellow human beings during a time of bad health or family emergency.

With this in mind, however, there is a difference between a company extending a helping hand to an employee and having the government hover near in anticipation of corporate malevolence. With this year's uncertainty of tax considerations (and, worse, the pending certainty taxes will rise) and a proliferation of regulations that bear the initials ADA, COBRA and ERISA, small businesses can barely concentrate on making ends meet and paying their employees because so much energy is expended reacting to Washington's impulses.

And these regulations are like many others, convoluted enough to baffle the well-intentioned and broad enough to encourage loophole-scavenging. Some employers will find a way to get around it, and some employees will find a way to abuse it. And the good companies that treat their employees with respect, perhaps even exceeding the letter of this act as a means of keeping a capable and content work force, find yet another arm of government wrapped around them.

We believe most companies enrich themselves by taking care of their employees, not finding every opportunity to stick it to them. The Family and Medical Leave Act has its heart in the right place, but it has its feet planted firmly in the bureaucracy adjoining the Potomac. The regulation train chugs along, unencumbered as ever.