Force her to call it FMLA?
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This may be an elementary question, but I've seen conflicting information and need to clarify.
We have a pregnant employee who wants to take leave from birth to 12 weeks to bond with the baby. She wants to preserve as much FMLA time as possible so she doesn't have to pay her insurance premiums in case the leave goes longer than 12 weeks.
She wants to use up vacation time at the beginning of the pregnancy and then declare FMLA when she's used that up. (We do require someone on FMLA to use up their paid leave.)
Should we force her to run the FMLA clock during the paid leave? She's a good employee and we want to be reasonable. We have fewer than 100 employees, so some of the WA state leave does not apply to us.
Thanks,
Half HR
We have a pregnant employee who wants to take leave from birth to 12 weeks to bond with the baby. She wants to preserve as much FMLA time as possible so she doesn't have to pay her insurance premiums in case the leave goes longer than 12 weeks.
She wants to use up vacation time at the beginning of the pregnancy and then declare FMLA when she's used that up. (We do require someone on FMLA to use up their paid leave.)
Should we force her to run the FMLA clock during the paid leave? She's a good employee and we want to be reasonable. We have fewer than 100 employees, so some of the WA state leave does not apply to us.
Thanks,
Half HR
Comments
An FYI for Washingtonians: we can't force her to use FMLA during the disability phase of the pregnancy, since the WA Pregnancy Leave laws intend there to be disability leave in addition to FML if the ee choses. The employer doesn't pay premiums during that type of leave.
Half HR
But our labor attorney told us that in WA state we can't force an employee to stack the WA state pregnancy disability leave and FMLA *during* the disability phase of the pregnancy.
He said the intent of the law was to allow stacking so that new mothers who had complicated pregnancies would still be permitted the 12 weeks of FMLA after the baby was born.
Half HR
That being said, it appears that WA singles out pregnancy differently than other disabilities and "protects" the bonding portion (if I'm reading this correctly). Anyway...if your state law is more generous, this is what is required of you, as an employer.
We require that employees use the paid leave concurrently with the FMLA.