Maternity Leave and Holidays

karri

Hi all,

Quick Question - do you have to count the days your office is closed as part of your maternity leave?

We are closed for a week near Christmas and I believe, even though the office is not open, I have to count that week as one of my paid maternity leave weeks.  Is this legal?  If I were sick and the office was closed, I wouldn't have to use a sick day, so why should I have to use a Maternity Leave day?

I'm due 12/21 and the office is closed from 12/25 - 1/2.  I may be late and not have to worry about this at all, but wanted to ask what your companies are doing.

-Karri

Zekeandtiffany

you should still get you holidays off.  I dont think they can double your take off time for that period.  I will have all my holidays and maternity leave... the one good thing about being due close to christmas I think!

Janimal

Under FMLA rules (if your maternity leave is considered FMLA) holidays don't make a difference.  If your office is closed for 2 days in a week, and just open for 3 days, those 3 days still count as a full week of the 12 weeks allowed under FMLA.

jebs_girl

Usually with holiday pay you have to work your full shift the business day before and after to receive 100% of holiday pay. Since I won't be working, I will be taking maternity leave I am most likely exempt from holiday pay.

I'll have to ask HR about that because I was wondering that too. I just assumed I won't receive holiday pay if I'm on maternity leave.

alisonada

We have to count holidays as part of our maternity leave, even though we would have those days off anyway. It's in our benefits handbook and everything, and I work at a large law firm so I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be doing it if it was illegal.

 Sucks, though.

luvoutdoors

Janimal just curious where you found those "FMLA Rules" . I'm wondering if its specific to your particular company/office. I work for the FED Gov and our HR said Holidays should not count in your 60 days(12 weeks) off. Now I'm trying to find it in print but can't!! I will be taking SL and AL and our system automatically discounts the holidays.

Zekeandtiffany

Wow my work is so great about things like this.  Reading this makes me love what I do more!

candreco

Definitely ask your HR office, since every company is going to have a different policy.  I work for the federal gov't, and opted to not go with FMLA because unpaid doesn't really help and I have the option of just using up to six weeks of sick leave, plus whatever annual leave I want to use.  Federal holidays are added on top of that, so as of now I have over two months of maternity leave going that route.

Megan Briggs

I have to count holidays toward my leave.  According to our HR manual, you do not accrue any paid time off (sick, vacation, holiday) while on leave.

Janimal

Well, here is the link to the Department of Labor that goes over this par tof the FMLA regs.

 https://www.dol.gov/dol/allcfr/ESA/Title_29/Part_825/29CFR825.200.htm

The specific reg is 29 CFR 825.200 part (f) where it says:  "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."

Megan Briggs

Oh, and i also work for a law firm, so I am sure this is on the up and up.

Janimal

Ladies at law firms - some of my favorite employment lawsuit to cite were originated by employees of law firms.  Just because they are supposed to know the law, doesn't mean they follow it.  Heck, I have talked to employment lawyers, who specialize in employment law, who didn't get regulations right!

JARbaby

I just did my FMLA meeting and I work in a school. Time the school is closed means nothing.

Bruce2b

sound like us ladies that work for the federal gov't have the best deal here. Having the baby in December, and taking January and February off, add up to almost an extra week of time off thanks to holidays! good luck working it all out!

Janimal

Hehe, as the VPHR at my company, and the FMLA administrator, I can get away with a bit.  Is that wrong?  Yes.  Heheheheheeee

JillStar

My "maternity leave" is actually short term disability, so I am "disabled" for a set period of time - 6 to 8 weeks, depending on how I deliver. Company holidays have no impact on the overall number of weeks I get off. I'll be on STD during Thanksgiving and Christmas when we have paid holidays, but those will not be added to the end of my leave.

2BeJennP

i asked about this as well and got the same response Janimal gave - holidays or not, it counts as calendar weeks.  I am hoping my branch manager might work with me a bit - otherwise I will loose an entire week to holidays as well.

viola2008

My work said the same thing about FMLA - that the holidays you have to use your FMLA if it starts before the holiday.  My leave was the same way.  I had to use my short term disability even though I would have had vacation days too.  So holidays did not add any on to my short term disability or FMLA.  (There was no maternity leave at my work.  I got the same that a man would have gotten if he had a 8 lb mass removed from his body. So I call it by the correct name in protest.) 

Funny thing though is that they did pay me an extra week of short term disability.  I was supposed to get six weeks and they kept sending my paycheck so I called them and they just said they will stop it now.  So I did end up getting another week becuase our HR wasn't able to keep up with the women at the company (I am an engineer so this was about 5% of the workforce.)  Hope it works out for you.