Pregnancy/FMLA

Carolsmith

If a pregnant employee is put on bed rest on August 22nd and if she goes her full term to approximately October 22nd, which is 9 weeks of FMLA already, what happens after she exhausts her FMLA, does the Pegnancy Act then apply? OR - does the FMLA end and the company is not required to hold her position or a equivalent position for her?

POPEYE

Check your state provisions. In TN an EE has up to 4 months Maternity Leave. The first 12 weeks would run concurrently with FMLA but there is an additional 4 weeks entitlement.

SMace

The pregnancy act doesn't apply other than you have to offer her leave just as you would anyone else in your company that was sick or injured (not WC).

If you do not allow leave beyond the 12 weeks of FMLA and your state does not require any other additional leave you can terminate her employment if she does not return.

LindaS

Agree with SMace. Take a look at what you have granted to EEs in the past once their FMLA was exhausted. If you haven't encountered this before you need to decide what you, as an employer, want to do. Just make sure the decision you reach will apply to ALL individuals on FMLA, not just those that are pregnant.

Here we have 26 weeks of disability payments that EEs are entitled to so what we do in these instances is that once their FMLA is exhausted, if they are still unable to return to work we post their job within the plant and look to fill it from outside if necessary. If the EE is still unable to return once we have found someone to take their place the new person is put in that position. If the EE is able to return within the 26 weeks they are put in whatever position is currently open within the plant. We do not guarantee their position after the 12 weeks of FMLA are exhausted.

deniseE

It is important to look at this beyond Pregnant. If it helps, call it a period of temporary disability. This person is the same as one who has a heart attack or shattered leg.

Look to past decisions as well as future ones. If you terminate this ee, you will also have to terminate the guy with shattered leg that cannot return within 12 weeks.

WT

The above are good posts. PDEA is out there to assure that pregnant employees are not treated differently than others. The question you must ask yourself, is what would be done in case of a heart attack or a broken leg as mentioned in the post above. If the pregnant employee is treated more harshly, you are on thin ice. Further, watch your FMLA year. When does the employee get a new allottment of FMLA leave? Did you give the employee a statement of your policy on FMLA leave?What option have you chosen for a FMLA year? (i.e. calendar year, rolling year or other) If you have not chosen an option and notified your employees, the employee can pick the option most advantageous to herself. Good luck.

Carolsmith

Thanks to all of you for the advice. I guess the pregnacy issue threw me and now I understand that it is no different than any other disability. We have had many pregnancy FMLA but the women have always worked up to or within a couple of weeks of their delivery date. Thanks again.