Caution:  The following identifies some basic but highly technical  issues.  There are many exceptions  and nuances to these rules, so if you think you have an issue, consult your attorney.

To broadly summarize a very complicated area of the law:

Vacation Leave:  This leave is optional, in the employer’s discretion, but: if vacation leave is provided, it accrues proportionately day by day and unused, accrued vacation must be paid on termination of employment;  a “use it or lose” it policy is unlawful; but the employer may “cap” the amount of vacation that can accrue from year to year.

Sick Leave:     Paid sick leave is also optional. Unused leave need not be paid on termination.  If sick leave is allowed, it may also be used to care for an ill child, parent, spouse or domestic partner.

Personal Time Off (“PTO”):   Combined vacation/sick/personal leave:  rules same as vacation leave.

Holidays:         Not mandated; no automatic overtime.

Pregnancy Leave:  If employer has 5 or more employees, unpaid pregnancy leave, up to 4 months, is allowed if woman is “disabled” according to physician certification.  Benefits continue during leave and reinstatement to same or comparable position is usually required.

Family Leave: If employer has 50 or more employees, 12 weeks per year unpaid leave is allowed for birth of child (either spouse) or illness to employee, family member, or domestic partner.  Leave can be intermittent. Employee has reinstatement rights.

Disability Leave:         If employer has 5 or more employees, must make “reasonable accommodation” to employee with physical or mental disability, which could include unpaid time off or limited work schedule, unless the accommodation would result in an “undue hardship” to the employer.  Employee has reinstatement rights.

Job Related Injury:     Worker’s compensation law allows unlimited leaves for physical or psychological job related disability.   Payment is under the workers comp system. 

Miscellaneous Leaves:            Legally mandated leaves are provided for: religious holidays, entry in drug or rehab program, participation in adult literacy program, voting, jury duty, military service, attendance at school programs for children, and crime victims.

The penalties for violation of these rules are too diverse for coverage in this article, but they are substantial.  Also, leaves can be ‘tacked’ so that, for example, disability pregnancy and family leave could be added to equal 28 weeks. 

Perhaps the greatest trap for employers is not so much failure to allow the taking of the leave but claims for illegal retaliation for the assertion of leave rights.  For example, an employee takes intermittent leaves claiming that job stresses cause periodic, disabling migraine headaches.  This disrupts the employer’s operations but normally should not form the basis for demotion, firing, etc.  However, the employer is dissatisfied with the employee’s job performance independent of the periodic leaves and wishes in good faith to take action.  In order to defend a retaliation claim, the employer should be able to clearly prove the reasons for the adverse action (which it would not ordinarily be obliged to do absent the assertion of leave rights).  This burden naturally ‘chills’ the employer’s decision making process.  The employer must be especially careful in any circumstance where an employee has asserted his/her legal rights

(Jay Strauss is a practicing attorney, a former Chamber President and Mayor of Lafayette (2000).  Email:  jstrauss31@yahoo.com.)