What is an employer required to provide an employee after pregnancy?
“For covered employers and eligible employees, parental or bonding leave is FMLA (Family Medical Leave Act) covered. Employers do not have to provide parental or bonding leave in incremental blocks or part-time blocks. Employees can be required to take this leave in one big block. If the employer employs both parents, and they’re married, the employer can limit the parental takes to 12 weeks.
If FMLA doesn’t apply to the employer or the employee or both, then we go back to the Pregnancy Discrimination Act standard, where we’re treating the employees similarly to those who are unable to return to work. So again, we’re looking at employees who are incapacitated due to a work-related injury, due to disability, or some other reason, and we want to be sure that we’re treating the pregnant employees similarly to those other employees.
And finally, for all employers, non-exempt nursing mothers are entitled to unpaid break time to pump or express milk for one year following the birth of the child. And the employer has an obligation to provide a private space that is not a bathroom so that the mother can take the break time necessary to pump or express for their child.”
By: Whitney R. Brown, Esq., Lehr Middlebrooks Vreeland & Thompson, P.C.