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Maternity Leave

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Pyramid

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? CA

An employee has been on maternity leave for 12 weeks under FMLA. After the end of thge 12 weeks we have not heard from the employee and the employee has not returned.

Is it our resposibility to contact the employee on her status?
We have heard through the grapevine from other employees that the employee wants to extend her leave (per MD orders), is her job protected under FMLA since she has used up her 12 work weeks?

Thanks,
Pyramid
 


Beth3

Senior Member
Is it our resposibility to contact the employee on her status? No. It's her responsibility to contact you if she needs to extend her leave or show up for work on the appointed day.

We have heard through the grapevine from other employees that the employee wants to extend her leave (per MD orders), is her job protected under FMLA since she has used up her 12 work weeks? Once she's used up her 12 weeks of FMLA, you have no obligation to return her to her prior position or to work at all.

At this point, you can terminate her employment if you wish to because of (a) failure to contact you at the end of her approved leave time, and (b) because she has exhausted all her FMLA. Having said that though, you need to review whether you have any precedents to be concerned about. How have you treated other employees who fail to contact you when their leave is up? Have you extended leave to other employees beyond the 12 weeks of FMLA? If so, for what reasons?

The reason I ask these questions is because she's been off on maternity leave. Being pregnant doesn't entitle her to special treatment - just the same treatment everyone else receives. If, for example, you have been slip-shod with your leave practices with others but you lower the boom on her for not contacting you at the end of her leave, you could find yourselves at the unhappy end of a pregnancy discrimination claim.

Consistency in your practices is the key issue here.
 

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