FMLA leave for the grandparent of adopted child

pattimac · November 2005

Hi to all - This is my first time with a question but I have been reading the "Forum" for several months and love it. I am a Vice President of a Flex & COBRA Administration Company in charge of our HR Dept. I started with our company 16 years ago as a Service Rep. in our group insurance brokerage business. We have since sold that department. Therefore, my background is in employee benefits.

I have a valued (not key) employee whose daughter and her husband will be adopting their first child in a month. Our employee (the grandma) wants to take a week off to help take care of her grandchild as well as to offer support and emotional comfort to the new parents. Our Company has an unwritten policy, for the department in which this employee is a supervisor, that no employee can take any PTO during the time she will need to be with her daughter as it is a very busy time of the year for our business.

In reading the FMLA regs it appears that her leave would not be a FML leave since the leave is for the birth or adoption of a son or daughter. It does not mention "for a grandchild".

Has anyone experienced this situation and, if so, did you grant the leave under FMLA?

LindaS · November 2005

This does not qualify as FMLA for the grandparent BUT you MAY want to think about giving some time off to the grandmother (maybe a day or two) although I wouldn't grant a whole week. I would also require them to use any available vacation, PTO, whatever. If they are out of their time then you could look into granting one or two days of unpaid time but I would require verification of the adoption.

VS · November 2005

Agree with Linda. Definitely not FMLA. If you cannot allow this employee time off during this busy period, then I would be careful with any exceptions, since you may have to make more down the road. Otherwise,Linda pointed out good alternatives. None of this, of course, will make the employee happy. Hopefully, this busy period doesn't last too long and she can take some time off soon.

Whatever · November 2005

First of all, do grant leaves to other ees whenever they become grandparents? If you do, then you should be consistent. If you don't, you must be consistent.

Second, as the parent of two adopted children, I can assure you that at the time of the adoptions, we did not need emotional comfort (heck, it was the happiest time of our marriage) and we didn't need help to care for them (afterall, I was not recovering from childbirth).
That did not stop my family and my in-laws from stopping by practically every day after work and on weekends to dote over the grandchildren.

Gillian3 · November 2005

The responses are correct. One of the issues that comes up regularly is what one wants to do when no regulation applies. It is a good idea to weigh the denial vs. the possible impact of not doing something. If you deny time off you may get morale issues from the employee and other employee. Providing some time off, even if it is a short period of time, may gain you appreciation and loyalty.

mbeam · November 2005

Agree with Gillian - if there is a way to let this valued associate take some time off to bond with their new grandchild, would recommend doing so.

In the majority of the cases that we have worked with people when they've had special circumstances - birth, death, marriage, divorce, we have received payback tenfold in terms of willingness to help out when the company needs them along with goodwill and loyalty. Word of mouth about a good employer goes a long way to attracting other valued team members.

If her family lives close to home then would see if she could work a reduced schedule or take fewer days.

Is there work that this associate could do to make up for some of the time that they would be missing by working longer days the week before or the week after?

FMLA leave for the grandparent of adopted child

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