FMLA and Prenatal Classes

psrcello

An employee's wife is about two months away from delivering her first child. It has been a complicated pregnancy, and the employee has been approved for intermittent FMLA in order to accompany and drive her to various appointments for lab work, ultrasounds, etc.

Now, he has asked whether their prenatal classes will be considered as part of his intermittent leave. They will be starting classes on Saturday, and his department has just been placed on mandatory Saturday overtime, so he'll need to miss work in order to participate in the classes.

Any advice, anyone?

sandra_d

I will be curious to see what everyone else thinks...here is my thoughts...

If they were classes on how to care for a child with a specific medical condition, disability, illness, whatever, then I would think they would be covered under intermittent leave. If these are just the standard classes, I guess I wouldn't think they would fall under FMLA - general education that isn't a requirement of parenthood. Can you treat it like vacation and give him the time off? Perhaps he could borrow the materials/video/whatever from the place hosting the prenatal program and self-study from home. From past experience, the people and facilities who run such programs tend to be understanding of family issues (including work schedules)and try to find another way for people to participate when they really want to.

skyrocket

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 07-21-03 AT 01:28PM (CST)[/font][p]While driving the spouse to the doctor and providing her care and comfort can be subject to FMLA, pre-natal classes do not. The purpose of these classes is not a serious health condition. In addition, the employee has a duty to coordinate intermittent absences so as to minimize business disruption. Classes are offered nearly 24/7.

Rockie

I am sure that prenatal classes are offered at times other than Saturday mornings. Generally, they are also held in the evenings to accomodate individuals' work schedules. I agree that this would not qualify as FMLA.

Whatever

Which came first, enrolling for the Saturday classes or mandatory working overtime? I would talk to the employee and see if the class can be changed. However, if they enrolled for class believing that the employee would not be working that day and if the course cannot be changed, I would try to be as lenient as possible.

psrcello

Thanks for the input everyone - I was inclined to say this wouldn't qualify, but with the definitions in the law as broad as they are, with pregnancy automatically being a serious health condition, the spouse's complications, and the "psychological comfort and reassurance" language, I thought that bouncing it off a few other "experts" would help, and it did!

Actually, the class was scheduled before we went to mandatory Saturday overtime, but "lenient" isn't an option - we're a union plant with an attendance "points" system, and we don't dare treat one employee, however reliable, any differently from any other employee, however unreliable.

I talked to the employee this morning, and I think he and his spouse will be able to work this out (she works days and he's on second shift, so the Saturday classes were initally the best option for them.)

LindaS

Doesn't your attendance policy have a clause about prescheduled appointments? At a former company (unionized) the attendance policy had a clause regarding prescheduled appointments. This was a company that required alot of overtime during certain months of the year, but the OT could be very sporadic. In an attempt to acknowledge that employees had lives outside of the plant, a clause was added to the attendance policy that stated if an employee scheduled an appointment (limited to certain types of appts.) that was outside of their normal work schedule, they would be "excused" to attend that appointment as long as they provided documentation verifying when the appointment was scheduled.

This worked well for employees who had regular dr. or dentist visits - they were able to schedule the appts. far in advance and not have to worry about cancelling at the last minute.

I understand your need to get work done but this is something the EE probably scheduled way before they were told of the OT.

Just a suggestion.