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Protected during maternity leave?

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jlarae

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Colorado, Firm headquartered in California and firm generally voluntarily complies with CA law for most policies.

I am on maternity leave. Currently, using sick leave portion and am due in a few days. My maternity leave is very generous and combines sick leave and vacation and 18 weeks paid. My firm just engaged in layoffs of about 8% of its headcount. I have been with the firm for almost 3 years. I am thinking that I am just protected under FMLA for 3 months and that's it. Even though there policy is to provide such maternity leave, I assume that I am not protected.

There is someone at my firm who is pregnant - am I safer or is she? I had heard something about the person having to return to work to be fired. That sounds bogus.

What is the difference if I am "fired" or "laid off"?
 


cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
Neither of you is "more" protected than the other. Neither of you can be chosen for layoff BECAUSE you are on maternity leave or BECAUSE you are on FMLA. Either of you could be chosen for layoff in spite of those issues.

If either of you would have been chosen for layoff regardless of maternity leave or FMLA, then you can be chosen for layoff in spite of maternity leave or FMLA. Neither protects you from a layoff that would have happened anyway.

It is a matter of subjective opinion whether an employee should be notified of the layoff during the leave or when it expires. Neither is mandated by law.
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
The difference between a firing and a layoff is that with a layoff there is a reasonable expectation that when conditions improve, you will be called back to work. Many employers incorrectly use the term layoff for any termination that is not because of wrongdoing or poor performance on the part of the employee, just because so many people go up in a sheet of flame if you use the word, fired. But in actual fact, unless there is a very real reason to believe that you will be recalled to work, you have been fired (regardless of whether it was "your fault" or not).

And to answer the question that almost everyone else asks at this point, whether your employer calls it a firing or a layoff will have NO impact on either your unemployment benefits or on future employment.
 

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