My company has a Donated Sick Leave Policy where an employee can choose to donate their time to a fellow employee in the case that they need more time off than they have accrued. We just got a Memo last week from the CEO that he has decided that you are now not able to ask for Donated Sick Leave from your peers for pregnancy because that is an "elective" situation and not a medical necessity. I think that's crap! I'm not saying I expect all these people to give me their time, but I think I ought to have the right to ask them and let them decide if a pregnancy is a worthwhile reason to donate. What do you all think?
Re: Any lawyers in here??
Um, YES, contact a lawyer!
That is ridiculous!
"Elective"??? Amazing!!
I'm an employee benefits consultant and I can tell you it's definitely not a standard practice or exclusion.
OMG, call a lawyer ASAP! That IS crap!
Whether or not you plan to ask for donated time, he has NO RIGHT to decide that pregnancy is an "elective." Pregnant women should have the opportunity to ask. Wow, that makes me so mad.
GL!
My understanding is it's not saying the pregnancy itself is elective, but the extra time you choose to take off is elective.
IMO it makes sense - someone who doesn't want to return to work because they want to take more time with the baby versus someone who is unable to work because of illness.
I'm a lawyer, but I don't work in employment law. I would take some time to get familiar with the employment laws in your state, which you should be able to find on the internet. I would also look at internal policies for making such changes.
If I had to guess, I would bet there is no law broken in that change of policy, but again I'm not in that field and I don't know what state you're in. I would think the best argument would be that it's pregnancy discrimination, but that might be a stretch and you would have to determine if that's even a claim in your state.
Sorry I don't have a better answer for you. GL!
Im not a lawyer but this is exactly what Im thinking. At my last job we could donate time and I never heard of anyone using it for anything pregnancy related. I dont know if it was against policy or what...
I would have no issue helping someone out that had to go on bedrest, or had a sick baby... but not to help someone stay out longer.