Adoption vs Natural Birth

Hunter1

If an employer has the following policy, would it violate FMLA (or any other law/regulation): First six weeks of FMLA paid at normal salary if natural birth, but payment of a lesser flat dollar amount if FMLA is taken for an adoption?

sonny

Congrats on your 100 post Hunter. Can't answer confidentally about the exact legalness of it, but I don't like it and think it is discrimantory.

Hunter1

Thanks for noticing. I, too, think it's kind of a dumb policy, but don't know of any reason it would be illegal, or discriminatory in a legal sense.

Rockie

I believe you are flirting with danger here. The FMLA does not make any distinction between a natural birth or an adoption, as far as what the law mandates as time off. If you, as a company, make that distinction in your policies, I believe you could also be held accountable for a violation because you are not treating the events the same.

Don D

I have a different take. Since the FMLA does not require payment at all of any sort, I don't think it would be actionable under FMLA. Also, since adoptive parents are not a protected group, and whereas pregnant/post-pregnant people are, I do not think it would be illegally discriminatory to discriminate against the adoptive parent. If the pay policy were reversed, it would be.

Making sense and being fair are other issues.

sonny

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 06-06-03 AT 08:30AM (CST)[/font][p]Good point Don. Reminds me a comment my favorite labor attorney ever made, "You did not do anything illegal, however ever that doesn't mean that this isn't an extremely stupid management practice." (Of course this was not directed at me, but at a co-worker I did not care for so I loved it.)

Hunter1

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 06-06-03 AT 03:20PM (CST)[/font][p]Thanks for your replies. I had analyzed it like Don did, not legally discriminatory, but dumb, and wanted to confirm that I wasn't missing something. The question was raised by a friend (really : ) about his employer's policy. Guess they don't want to encourage adoption.