FMLA/Pregnancy

tfevergrn

Typically, depending on what state an employee works, if an employee does not qualify for FMLA or any other state leave law, we terminate employment for not being eligible for a leave of absence.

We have an employee who is pregnant, who works in Georgia. She is requesting a leave of absence to have her child in March. We are unaware of any pregnancy disability. She does not qualify for FMLA and in my research of Georgia law, I am not finding any specific Georgia pregnancy laws. In an effort to be consistent in our practice, I just need to confirm that there is no Georgia law out there which would obligate the employer to provide a leave of absence.

Any help or direction in this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Gar

Do I understand you correctly? If an employee needs a leave of absence and they are not eligible, you fire him/her?

tfevergrn

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 02-19-02 AT 07:10PM (CST)[/font][p]If there is not a particular state law that prohibits this, yes we do. Only if the employee does not have enough accrued paid sick time to cover the absence and will be gone for more than three days. When there is a potential ADA issue, we do reasonably accomodate with a leave if needed, no matter how long employed. Our company policy also allows for a personal leave, but that mandates at least a year of employment as well. This employee only has 7 months total employment.

This practice has promoted consistency in how employees are handled, alleviating potential discrimination liability. This is especially difficult when you have employees across the nation. What is your practice when it comes to leaves of absences when an employee does not qualify for FMLA or any other company leave?

We do tell the employee that when they are ready to go back to work, to re-apply for re-hire consideration. Then we treat them just like we would treat all other applicants, in the event the position is still open.

David Hagaman GA

Terminating a female employee who has to go leave work for pregnancy and/or child birth is full of perils. Georgia does not have a specific pregnancy leave law that I know of. However, federal law covers pregnancy discrimination under the pregnancy discriminations to Title VII. Also, I believe there are some cases out there that hold that not granting a personal leave to a pregnant female while granting leaves to males for injury or illness discriminates against females on the basis of their sex-pregnancy. Also, some courts have held that terminating an employee who leaves work for pregnancy because the employee, for example, exceeded the employer's leave policy that was something like 30 days, has the effect of mandating termination for pregnancy because the leave granted by policy is too short. In my experience many employers don't look at comparing leaves for male employees with those for pregnant females, and frequently grant leaves for males for illness or accident but not females for pregnancy. That could, of course, lead to a sex discrimination violation under Title VII.

tfevergrn

Understood and thank you. We don't grant leave to anyone who doesn't qualify, providing it is not an ADA issue. It doesn't matter what gender they are. FMLA and all our company policies require that you be employed with the company at least a year. Seven months employment is not close enough to 12 months. As long as we are consistent with this practice and there is no Georgia state law prohibiting termination, do you see any other problems? Please advise, any help is greatly appreciated.