FMLA - Parttime
dwf
22 Posts
My employer is very generous with its leave of absence policy. For maternity leaves, the ee is covered under the STD program and is then able to extend their leave by using accrued unused vacation hours, FML, and personal unpaid leave. It is not uncommon for those ees who are in a position to do so, to take a maternity leave of 12 months. I recently had a staff ee ask me if she could work parttime following her 6 week post partum and apply FML to the remaining non-worked hours. Would this be considered intermittent FML, or is it our responsibility to include this as an option in our LOA policy?
Comments
1) The federal FMLA allows but does not require employers to grant a reduced leave schedule or intermittent FMLA leave to employees for the purpose of caring for a newborn child. This means that you can give your employee FMLA leave if she wants to work part-time after the birth of her child, but you are not required to do so.
2) As far as whether you should include part-time employment following childbirth as an option in your LOA policy – it is up to you. However, I caution you to apply all types of leave consistently to all employees. That means that if you allow one employee to work part-time following childbirth, you should also allow other employees who request this work schedule to do so, too.
M. Lee Smith Publishers will be publishing an HR Executive Special Report on the FMLA which will answers these types of questions. That report will be the October Law Center Member benefit and will be available online to download or purchase in a few weeks. In the meantime, our existing HR Executive Special Report: FLMA, ADA & Workers' Compensation: Navigating the Treacherous Triangle discusses many of these types of issues and is available for download or purchase online.