Small Business Absent With Leave
The best defense is to have the right policy in place here are four tips to help avoid minefields.
It’s rarely easy for a small business to work around the loss of an employee who’s out on a leave of absence. But you may have to grant that request, under state or federal law. Attorney Emma Luevano explains.
A leave-of-absence request is always a headache. But because denying a request that is valid and lawful can result in litigation, it’s important to know exactly what you must provide in the way of leave, and to develop an appropriate leave policy. In general, federal and state laws require that you provide your employees time off for personal illness, to attend to the illness of a family member, a child’s birth or adoption. But there are often overlapping federal and state leave laws. Occasionally, they even conflict!
While specifics vary from state to state and according to circumstances, you can readily avoid misunderstanding by deciding in advance what your company’s leave policy will be. Once you have a policy that conforms to federal and state laws, distribute it in writing to limit the possibility of misunderstanding.
Here are four tips to help avoid minefields:
- Find out whether your company is covered under federal or state leave laws.
Federal family and medical leave laws cover employers with 50 or more employees, and public employers of any size. Many state leave laws mirror federal law and also cover only companies with a minimum of 50 employees. But don’t count on it. You may have to provide certain types of leave even with considerably fewer employees. For example, some states require that even employers with very few employees (fewer than 15) provide women leaves for pregnancy-related conditions.
- Determine when employees are eligible.
Under federal law, employees are entitled to family or medical leave once they’ve worked for you for at least 12 months (not necessarily consecutively) and have logged at least 1,250 hours of work over the previous year. Employees also have requirements to meet. Besides showing that the reason for their requested leave is covered under federal law, they must submit proper medical certification. Again, be mindful that state laws may have different or additional requirements.
- Ensure that you provide required notices.
As soon as an employee requests a leave of absence covered under leave laws, you have an additional headache: meeting employee notification requirements. These requirements exist to ensure that employees are informed of their rights and obligations under federal and state laws and should not be ignored or overlooked.
- Determine if your state requires other types of leaves.
Be mindful that some states require you to give employees time off for a variety of reasons, from voting and jury duty to attending judicial proceedings and attending alcohol and drug rehabilitation programs. Be sure you know your own state requirements.
Because this is an especially complicated area of employment law, it’s prudent to consult with legal counsel before distributing and implementing your leave policies.
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