FAMILY LEAVE ALREADY UP AND RUNNING

* Nearly 70 percent of medium- and large-sized companies already offer their employees family leave, according to a survey by Towers Perrin, a management consulting firm in New York. Yet most of these companies will have to modify their programs to comply with Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 regulations, issued earlier this month by the Department of Labor.

Among the 701 companies that responded to the survey, 58 percent offer unpaid family leave; 9 percent offer both paid and unpaid leave; 3 percent offer only paid leave; and 31 percent have no family leave program.

More than 90 percent of the respondents with programs said costs were not significant.