I need some help and advice on maternity leave

[Sonya]

I had always assumed that maternity leave was 3 months long, and at my job I know it's without pay. My principal even told me that since I was due end of May/start of June that I souldn't come back until September. That's 3 months. I talked to the HR person or whoever today and she told me I get 2 months w/o pay. I am so confused! I know others have taken 3 months! What is going on here?

 

[lil mermaid]

The Family Medical Leave Act guarantees you 12 weeks without pay. There are some execeptions though. Here is a link:

http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/fmla/

 

[jel0511]

Also, those 12 weeks start when you actually leave BEFORE the baby is born, at least that's how it was explained to me when I left when my first DD was born (I didn't go back!) So, if you are planning on takint 4 weeks off before the birth, then 8 weeks after would be all you get. In reality, does it really matter, since you'll leave before the baby is born, and your leave wouldn't have expired until after the school year is over. Just e back when school starts back in September. Am I oversimplifying this and missing something??

 

[Sonya]

I am going to work until the baby is born. So I think I would get the 12 weeks from say June 1st if that is when the baby comes to Sept. 1st. The HR person said I should report back to work when the school year starts, that's August 14th. I don't want to go back that early! I can't use my sick days, they make you take them 1st, so by Aug, I would have no more sick days. Surely she mistated herself when she said 2 months? I don't know if it being summer break complicates things or not.

 

[jel0511]

I would think that summer vacation shouldn't count, since if you weren't on maternity leave, you'd get that time off anyway. I'd call you HR department again, it seems like she might be a little confused.....

 

[Sonya]

WOW! There is a thought! I could have another 12 weeks after school began! I wouldn't have to go back until Nov.!

Unfortunately that would never work, couldn't afford to do that. But I agree, summer vacation shouldn't count!

 

[ez]

I think at the post office it is six weeks officially where you can use sick leave, but it really depends on how nice the supervisor at the time is. When I was having my dd, my supervisor was expecting a grandbaby plus he was retiring soon, and he seemed very sympathetic. So I took 14 weeks and it was all paid using my sick leave. There is no maternity leave pay at the post office-you either use your sick leave or take LWOP. Now this was almost nine years ago, they might be stricter now.
When a coworker was pregnant, we had a childless female supervisor that really gave her "hell" throughout her whole pregnancy. A couple years later, the supervisor, since transfered, had her first child. She called the coworker out of the blue, to profusely apologize for what a Bit$% she had been during her pregnancy. Interesting...when the shoes on the other foot...she must have been feeling pretty guilty!

 

[tigercat]

I guess we are lucky here in Ontario because the women get a year off and get maternity benefits. My dd is wanting to have a baby and she is looking forward to the year off.
tigercat

 

[Mskanga]

don't disability benefits work with maternity?

 

[jel0511]

Unforunately disability is a state thing..... I actually worked in NY and lived in NJ, but was held to NY's disability rules, which were MUCH worse than NJ's.

 

[DebbieB]

I believe pregnancy has to be treated the same as any other disability. If you doctor says you cannot work, they have to give you the same as any other illness, whatever the company benefits are.

One thing about FMLA - they go back 12 months and subtract any sick days you took from your 12 week allowance. So if you have complications before delivery, those days are taken from the allowance. They can also force you to take any unused earned vacation first. That happened to a girl I work with who took FMLA to care for her terminally ill mother-in-law.

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I was looking at the above link and found this:

http://www.dol.gov/dol/allcfr/ESA/Title_29/Part_825/29CFR825.200.htm
"For purposes of determining the amount of leave used by an
employee, the fact that a holiday may occur within the week taken as FMLA leave has no effect; the week is counted as a week of FMLA leave. However, if for some reason the employer's business activity has temporarily ceased and employees generally are not expected to report for work for one or more weeks (e.g., a school closing two weeks for the Christmas/New Year holiday or the summer vacation or an employer closing the plant for retooling or repairs), the days the employer's activities have ceased do not count against the employee's FMLA leave entitlement. Methods for determining an employee's 12-week leave entitlement are also described in Sec. 825.205."

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sounds like school closing for summer does not count against your 12 week entitlement.

 

[jsmith]

does your school district have a short term disability policy? Or do you pay for short term disability insurance? If you have a short term disability policy you should be able to take the first six weeks after the baby is born as short term disability. You may be required to use any earned vacation first although most large companies require you to use only one week before STD kicks in. This is a medical standard and almost all employers allow for this, although it may be unpaid leave-if it is unpaid and you have ST disability insurance you should be able to collect from them for the six weeks. By law, you would be entitled to another six weeks of FMLA leave (or six weeks minus what ever time you may have taken as FMLA leave in the previous 12 months) Your employer can not count your sick days against FMLA if you are on a PTO or EMT time where your sick and vacation time is in one bank unless you took unpaid time off for sick days.

tigercat-my company also has offices in the UK and Canada and I have been told by many collegues that maternity leave policies in the US are "barbaric".

 

[cinlee3]

I guess I was very fortunate when I had my first DS 17 years ago. I went on disability a month before he was born due to pre-term labor and was off 8 weeks after because that was what was allowed for c-section. So I got a total of 3 months off with full pay without taking sick leave or vacation. The only thing that was affected was my review which wouldn't be allowed now, but I didn't really care since I quite after my insurance paid everything.