maternity leave repayments

[tyasin]

I am going on maternity leave this summer and I am not sure if I want to return to work afterwards. I have already told my boss that I will return to work. Technically we do not have anything called "maternity leave." This actually falls under long term disabilty. This states that all full-time exempt salaried employees absent form work due to disability are eligible for salary continuation for a period of 3 months. I have two questions:
1. What does exempt employee mean?
(yes I am full time & I am salaried)

2. If I decide not to go back to work at anytime during the 3 month period and I tell the company, do I have to pay back the salary? and do I still get vacation pay for time not taken?

 

[Thomas234]

I am not an attorney, just someone like you.

Exempt means that you are "exempt" from overtime laws. Generally if you are a manager or other professional you would be classified as exempt. Do you get paid for overtime? If so you are not exempt.

As for paying back your disability pay, I can't see why you would have to? If they offer this benefit, you are disabled, and you qualify, why should you pay it back? Also, why would you quit your job while you are eligible for disability?

As for vacation pay, once you have earned vacation, you are entitled to it. IT CANNOT BE FORFEITED. If it is, give the US Department of Labor a call.

 

[mrjb]

post this original question in the employment law section.

 

[cbg]

Thomas has given you an accurate description of an exempt employee. You can get more information on www.dol.gov and look under the FLSA.

You would not need to repay the disability benefits that had been paid out. However, it is possible that they would stop once you indicated that you would not be coming back to work.

Thomas is incorrect about the vacation pay, however. Federal law does NOT require that vacation pay be paid out at termination, so contacting the US DOL would be worthless. There are states which do have such a requirement. New York is not one of them. In New York, it depends upon the company policy. If the company policy is to pay out vacation time, then they must do it. However, if the policy is NOT to pay it, then neither the Federal government nor the state of New York will require them to do so.