Adoption-ER wants to LIMIT LEAVE

jmcaa

Hi all,

An employee's spouse works for a day care in a local hospital. The employee & spouse are adopting a child. The spouse wants to take 8 weeks of FMLA. Someone at the day care where the spouse works is saying that their boss can limit the amount of leave she uses. I say she can't.

This same employee told the spouse that another employee was on FMLA for pregnancy and that the supervisor made her cut short her FMLA and come back to work.

This same employee said that the supervisor may not allow the spouse to take her vacation in late July just because she would be taking FMLA even though the vacation has already been approved.

Now, I know alot of employees talk about things they know nothing about, but I want to make sure I am telling the husband the correct rules.

I say the supervisor can NOT limit the time the spouse takes as FMLA, that the spouse is entitled to take the FULL 12 weeks if she wanted. I also told him that the supervisor can not factor in the time taken on FMLA when vacation time comes around.

Tell me I'm correct please.

Thanks!

deniseE

As long as the spouse and ee are not employed by the same company...they are entitled to 12 weeks of certified FMLA leave. Unless the daycare is not really part of the hospital and does not have enough employees to be required to offer FMLA...then she might be stuck.

The point of FMLA is to permit ee's to take care of family business for a specified period of time without fear of losing their job and to give employers the ability to give such time with a specific end date.

I don't know how the vacation time will be viewed...that may depend on internal policies. Maybe another forum member will have more information on that?

Don D

The vacation is an internal policy matter. It may be policy that vacation must be used concurrent with FMLA when not for the illness of the employee. In that case, the ee could not take vacation as scheduled but would use it concurrent with approved FMLA. I agree that it is not legal for the employer to impose its own arbitrary time limits on the amount of time one can take under the Act. Those limits are clearly established and are not 'guidelines'.

Betty I_O

If the employee (male or female)qualifies for and is placed on an FMLA, they are entitled to twelve weeks for adoption. It is only when both husband and wife work for the same employer that the full amount of leave is limited to an aggregate of 12 weeks. If supervisors are requiring employees to "cut short" their FMLA leave or dictating specific limits on the amount of time that can be taken, they are violating the law.

Although FMLA does not require that leave be paid, vacation may be used as a payment source for all or any part of the 12-week period. Do you have a written policy governing payment during leaves, including FMLA?

Many states also have laws regarding family leaves. FMLA does not supercede State laws if they provide greater leave rights to employees. You need to be sure that there is compliance with both the Federal and State laws.

SMace

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 04-16-04 AT 10:34AM (CST)[/font][br][br]The only thing I can think of is if they want to take intermittent leave for bonding. I believe you can deny that. I would have to research the regs further to confirm.

Or maybe someone else can confirm or deny.

Rockie

SMace: You can require the "bonding" be taken all at once; otherwise, an employee could drag it out intermittently until the kid went to college.