Q:   Who is covered under the Family Leave Medical Act?

Section 825.110 of the Family Leave Medical Act states which employees are (and are not) covered by requirements:

(a) an eligible employee is an employee of a covered employer who:

1. Has been employed by the employer for at least 12 months, and
   
   
2. Has been employed for at least 1,250 hours of service during the 12-month period immediately preceding the commencement of the leave, and
   
   
3. Is employed at a worksite where 50 or more employees are employed by the employer within 75 miles of the worksite.

Q:   I just found out that I am pregnant and the company for which I work is being taken over by a competitor. There are going to be lay-offs. Should I disclose my pregnancy or not? If I do need to find another job, am I under any obligation to disclose my pregnancy to a potential employer? What does the FMLA say about this situation?

According to my husband who works in human resources, when a woman discloses pregnancy to her current employer, it puts her in a "protected class." He said most employers think twice before terminating a person in a protected class without cause.

If a woman discloses pregnancy when interviewing or any time before she actually starts work, she is not protected (at least not in Texas). Also be aware that you are not covered by FMLA until you have worked for an employer for 1,250 hours. So, if a woman starts a job while she's pregnant and works less than 6 months before taking leave for childbirth, she's not covered by FMLA during her maternity leave.Having said all that, my first child was born before FMLA was enacted and my employer kept my job open for me. And many other women have started jobs during their pregnancies and not been discriminated against.

I was pregnant when I started my current job almost 10 years ago. I got my same job back too although they only let me take 7 weeks off (6 weeks disability and one week vacation time). But then again I did "get even" by being on 2 months' bedrest --- at full salary --before hand due to complications. My then manager would not let me take an additional 30 days unpaid after I had my child, even though such leave was in the company's procedures.

Q:   How long is the typical maternity leave? How does the FMLA factor in?

Most employers who offer paid maternity leave as an employee benefit specify a 6 week leave. In addition to ant paid maternity leave, an employee who is covered under the FMLA may take an additional 12 weeks unpaid, for a total of about 4 months. If the employer does not offer paid maternity leave but the employee is covered under FMLA, the employee is entitled to an unpaid leave of 12 weeks.

I only took for weeks after my daughter was born. Somehow I thought that's how long everyone took for childbirth.

I took 4 months of maternity leave after my son was born. Six weeks were covered by disability insurance, a couple more were sick/ vacation time, and the rest was unpaid family leave. Under the FMLA, your employer can require that you take all accrued vacation/ sick leave before taking family leave.

My company offers 6 weeks paid medical leave for vaginal birth without complications and 8 weeks for c-sections. Since FMLA allows 13 weeks, the remaining 7 or 5 weeks is unpaid unless you use vacation.

Back in the dark ages when my son was born, all we got was 6 weeks disability leave. The boss I then had let me work part-time at home until my son was 3.5 months old.

My daughter was born post-FMLA, and my company's policy is now to give the 6 weeks of paid disability leave, and then to allow the 13 weeks of unpaid family leave for a total of about 4 months. I had a different boss then, but just as flexible. He let me take an additional 2 months of unpaid personal leave, so I had a total of 6 months.

I work for a university in Canada. I got 18 weeks maternity leave plus 10 weeks of parental leave. While I was on the 18 week maternity leave, Unemployment Insurance paid me 45% then the my employer would top that up to 95% of my salary right away. After being back at work for 6 months, my employer paid me the additional 5%. If you quit working before the 6 months is up then you have to reimburse the employer for what they paid you for your maternity leave. I was paid 45% of my salary by UnemploymentInsurance while on the 10 week parental leave, nothing from my employer. For each leave, Unemployment Insurance has a two week waiting period where you don't get paid. The two week waiting period is waived for parental leave if the person taking it is the same person who took maternity leave.

I have a 9-month academic contract. We have no real maternity leave here at all... I had my daughter in the summer, basically on my "own time." It's hard to imagine what would happen if I had a baby during the academic year. I'm sure they'd cobble together something but it wouldn't be very generous leave time for me. I ended up taking a semester of unpaid leave in the fall after my daughter was born. I probably would not be able to do that again if I ever have another... couldn't afford it.

I also have a 9-month academic contract. Here, you don't actually get maternity leave B you get 6 weeks of short-term disability leave. If you give birth during the summer with 6 weeks before school starts, for instance, you don't get any Aleave@ B that is, you can't take the first six weeks of the Fall semester and call it maternity leave. You can, underFMLA, take 6 more weeks without pay (for a total of 12). Actually, my employer will let you take a full year without pay.

I will be using FMLA for my maternity leave this fall when we adopt our daughter. My company does not have maternity leave for adoptions. I will be taking 3 months, however, I negotiated with the company to allow me to work part-time from home during these three months. That way I will be at least be paid half the time I am off and I won't be placing my employer in a bad situation because of my leave.

Q:   Can I perform other paid while on paid maternity leave? I plan to take an additional 4 months after my baby is born but I can't afford to be out of work for that long so I'd like to do some freelance contract work.

I did freelance work on my maternity leave for an outside company (a book publisher) and nobody ever said anything about it. Of course, I wasn't working in direct competition with my employer, so maybe they weren't worried about it. They did know that I was doing the book on my leave before I left. My assumption was that whatever I do on my own time is my business--sort of like moonlighting as long as you're not competing with your day job, and as long as you can still do your day job, they shouldn't care, right?

I have signed an intellectual property agreement with my employers. So, if I want to develop anything, I have to be very careful about doing it on my own time and resources. And as a salaried employee with some flex-time, it can be a bit difficult to distinguish my time from my employers.

Perhaps it is because I am fortunate enough to be working for a company, that by U.S. standards, has very generous and flexible benefits; but I am a bit ambivalent about the idea of doing the same kind of work for pay when I am still employed but not performing work for my employer... I think I'd prefer to offer to work part-time form home for my employer before I'd offer my services elsewhere.

Resources:

1-800-959-FMLA, toll free number if anyone is having problems with the family leave act.There is at website on FMLA at http://www.hillstrom.com/frame.htm