FMLA

Sarge

We have a pregnant employee who was planning to use her 12 weeks FMLA leave. We have another employee in the same department who is out on leave with an unknown return to work date. The pregnant employee has volunteered (with no pressure or suggestions from the company) to shorten her FMLA leave if the other employee is not back. If the other employee returns within a few weeks after the pregnant employee comes back the pregnant employee would like to use the rest of her 12 weeks FMLA at that time. Has anyone had a similar situation or know of any problems that we may encounter with this situation?

marc

I'll take a whack at it.

You can allow the pregnant EE to take the additional time, but it does set a precedent. Bonding time with a newborn can be administered as a continuous block of time. The pregnant EE is willing to make a sacrifice for your company and that is the kind of loyalty and work ethic I would want to encourage and would therefore find a way to make it work.

I would worry more about the precedents I was setting with the EE who is out on some sort of unspecified leave with no certain return to work date. If it is FML, then you have the 12 week requirement to meet. To allow more is, again, the company's option, but doing so establishes a precedent that you may be required to meet with all other EEs.

Don D

Remember too, unless you choose to grant more lenient leave parameters, entitlement to leave for a birth expires 12 months from the date of birth; so, the employee would not be able to take two weeks, skip 8 months and then ask for the rest of it most likely.

Leslie

There's a lot of questions to look at. For the employee with the unspecified return date - what is the maximum amount of time you allow employees for leave? Do you have a date where this employee must return? How does that fold in with the anticipated start date for leave with your pregnant employee? Even with a normal birth, I think she'd be hard pressed to get a return to work clearance until at least four to six weeks afterwards.

As Marc says, you will be setting a precedent for a split leave with your pregnant employee, but it may be a small price to pay if she's willing to help out in a short staffed situation. Put some parameters on it, so that if it becomes an issue with another pregnant employee in the future you won't be hung out to dry.