Pregnancy/Maternity Leave for a Salaried Employee - in Kansas
a1scaffold
2 Posts
We have an employee who has been salaried since May 2008. She is pregnant and due in approximately 2 more months. On many occasions she leaves early for appointments, goes home sick, comes in late because she is sick, calls in absent because she is sick......etc. More often than not she does not reach 40 hours in a week. Can we deduct from her paycheck for this time she has missed work? What about when she goes on Maternity leave - can we not pay her while she is on leave?
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
She was eligible for 40 hours vacation when she reached her anniversary in March 2009. My opinion is that she has already exhausted these 40 hours due to her calling in absent.
Suggestions?
Comments
No paid sick leave - only vacation time. The way we do our vacation is the employee is issed a check for their eligible vacation (40, 80, 120, etc.) at their anniversary date - then any time they take off during the year is unpaid since they were already paid for their vacation.
All other employees when they are sick, on vacation, off for appointments, etc. just clock out and leave work - so it is unpaid since everyone else is hourly.
You cannot deduct in partial day increments from a salaried employee's pay. Only for full days missed except fue to illness or injury, in which case you can only deduct in accordance with a bona fide sick leave plan. As you have no bona fide sick leave plan for your salaried employees, you cannot ever deduct from their pay for absences due to illness or injury.
However, you can deduct partial days from a vacation bank for partial days used and even allow the bank to go into the negative, but you must pay the full salary pay.
How many employees does your company have? If FMLA applies, there's more to discuss here. Also be mindful of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. If you have had a similar issue with a person who was in and out with therapy on their broken leg or for cancer treatment, you should ensure that the complications of her pregnancy are treated no differently (read, "no more harshly") than the others were.