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Hourly employee and pregnancy leave
Benefits & Compensation
Hourly employee and pregnancy leave
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I have a small preschool which due to its size it does not require for us to provide FMLA benefits. One of our employees was hired recently (about 4 months ago) and it turns out that she was pregnant,
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Forums » Topic Forums » Benefits & Compensation » Hourly employee and pregnancy leave
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Hourly employee and pregnancy leave
posted at 11/2/2010 11:23 AM EDT
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Posts: 2
First: 11/2/2010 Last: 11/3/2010 |
I have a small preschool which due to its size it does not require for us to provide FMLA benefits. One of our employees was hired recently (about 4 months ago) and it turns out that she was pregnant, which is fine for us, given that she is a good employee. However, now that she is on the last stages of her pregnancy, she is unable to do many of the demands of her job (such as lifting children, caring of the children when playing outside or picking toys) as an example. We have tried to have our floating assistant help her, but it seems to us that the further along she gets she will need an assistant to help her exclusively given that she won't be able to do many of these tasks. She wants to work as much as she can, but also, I cannot afford to pay her salary + an exclusive assistant when a substitute teacher can cover when she is out on leave.
My question is, who determines when an hourly employee goes on leave in CA?. Given the size of my company, what are my obligations to our employee now that she is getting close to delivery?. Most of the information that I have found online are regarding companies that need to provide FMLA, which is not our case. All your help in this matter is greatly appreciated |
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Hourly employee and pregnancy leave
posted at 11/3/2010 6:39 AM EDT
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Posts: 2146
First: 2/15/2006 Last: 9/14/2011 |
Well, you have to treat her the same as you would any other employee with any other medical issue/disability. You can NOT discriminate based on Pregnancy. If you would accommodate other issues, then you must accommodate the pregnancy issues.
The Pregnancy Discrimination Act applies if you have 15 or more employees. http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/fs-preg.html Read through the article above....it's a good one and directly from the EEOC. |
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Hourly employee and pregnancy leave
posted at 11/3/2010 6:44 AM EDT
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Posts: 2146
First: 2/15/2006 Last: 9/14/2011 |
I missed that you were in CA the first time I read your post.
You also need to consider CA's considerable Pregnancy protection laws....CFRA, PDL, etc. I am not well versed in them. But it gets complicated. Here's just one article I found: http://www.employmentlawattorney.com/papers/pregnancy_leave.pdf And it looks like it applies to employers with more than 5 employees. So I suspect she has at least some job protection under that. |
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Hourly employee and pregnancy leave
posted at 11/3/2010 8:20 AM EDT
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Posts: 2
First: 11/2/2010 Last: 11/3/2010 |
Thanks for your reply. I'm OK with providing her leave, my problem is that she wants to work as long as she can even though she cannot perform the duties of her job. If she keeps working, in order for me to fill the requirements of her position I would need to hire a full time assistant, which I cannot pay. I rather have her on leave until she gives birth and then she can reincorporate to her job when she is ready. This way, I can hire a substitute teacher instead of paying a teacher + an assistant. I thank you in advance for all your help |
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