Most bosses understand they can’t use ethnic or racial slurs, but many don’t understand that the same common sense applies to discussing topics such as family planning. What sorts of comments are off limits? Just about anything that could make an employee think a supervisor might count it against her if she used FMLA leave.

Now that the Democrats have lost their 60-vote supermajority in the Senate, it will be that much more difficult for the Obama administration to make good on many of its pro-employee campaign promises. But this still could be a key year for Democratic plans to revamp our national employment laws. Here are seven key initiatives pending in Congress and what they could mean for your business if they become law.

Supervisors need regular reminders—reinforced with training—that it’s their responsibility to find ways to deal with it when workers go on FMLA leave, no matter how difficult it may be to cover for the absent employee. As the following case shows, courts have no sympathy for employers that fire or make unreasonable demands on employees who exercise their FMLA rights.

The ADA requires employers to try to find reasonable accommodations so disabled employees can perform the essential functions of their jobs. It’s up to employers to determine which functions are essential. Courts rarely second-guess employers that follow a few simple rules when a disabled employee challenges the employer’s list of essential functions. The factors courts consider are:

Looking to get sued? Just throw the book at an employee whom you would just as soon see resign. That’s especially true if she has just engaged in some form of protected activity like asking for FMLA leave.

Employers know they may have to accommodate disabled employees by granting additional time off. But what about employees who, although they aren’t disabled, still claim run-of-the-mill illnesses prevent them from working? You can and should set strict standards for further leave.

Employees who run out of FMLA leave and are fired under a policy requiring mandatory dismissal for excessive absences may be invited to apply for other open positions when they recover enough to work. Be careful how you handle those reapplications, especially if one of the terminated employees was off because she was pregnant and ran out of leave before being able to return.

Interested in combating potential FMLA fraud? The best way to keep employees from gaming FMLA leave is to use the law’s medical certification process. To make sure employees take only FMLA leave to which they are entitled, follow these 10 steps:

If an employer has to downsize due to economic conditions, employees who are out on FMLA leave aren’t immune. They can be included in the reduction in force as long as their FMLA status isn’t used as a factor. But employers have to be careful—it will look suspicious if the only employee laid off happens to have been out on FMLA leave or just returned from it.

Here’s a recipe for trouble: An employee returns from medical leave, but doesn’t say anything about his condition. His supervisor asks him if he needs accommodations. It might suddenly occur to the employee that accommodations are a good idea. Or he might think he’s being treated as if he is disabled. Either way, the question triggers a whole host of issues that may never have come up if not for the supervisor’s inquiry.

When Republican Scott Brown of Massachusetts won January’s special election to fill the seat long occupied by the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, Democrats lost their 60-vote supermajority in the Senate. That means it will be that much more difficult for the Obama administration to make good on many of its pro-employee campaign promises. That’s not to say those employment law initiatives are dead. The following are the key initiatives pending in Congress.

Economic times remain tough, and businesses are still finding they have to cut costs to survive. And cutting costs often means looking at a possible reduction in force. In most organizations facing that difficult prospect, a team of managers has to decide where the cuts should be made and what criteria to use when making those cuts. Make sure the decision-making team doesn’t have access to information about FMLA usage ...

It happens more often than you might think. An HR office begins receiving an unusual number of FMLA certifications from the same doctor. The sudden deluge happens during peak production times and/or when employees are required to work mandatory overtime. It all points to what amounts to a scam.

Q. Can an employer deduct or count overtime hours from an employee’s FMLA balance? Our employees work overtime only from October through December. During that time, they’re required to work 12-hour days, seven days a week. We have several employees on both continuous FMLA and intermittent leave, and we’d like to deduct the overtime hours they would have worked from their FMLA allotment. What do you think?

Requiring an employee to undergo a fitness-for-duty examination to show he can perform his job doesn’t mean you’re regarding him as disabled or essentially conceding he is disabled. How you handle the exam results is what matters—not that you ordered an exam in the first place. If the exam shows the employee can perform the job, make sure you immediately reinstate him.