News & Insights

No FMLA – Yes Maternity Leave

If you’re a pregnant employee working for any company in the United States with at least 15 employees, you’re entitled to maternity leave. You’re entitled to a reasonable period of time after your baby is born to recover from childbirth and get back to work. It doesn’t matter if you’re not eligible for a Family and Medical Leave Act leave, and many employers will tell employees that unfortunately because you don’t qualify for the FMLA as you haven’t been here for at least a year, or you won’t have worked here for at least a year full time when your baby is born, or we’re not large enough we don’t have 50 employees, so sorry if you don’t have enough accrued paid time off, you can’t take leave or you’re on your own and you’ll have to resign. That is not true. That is a misrepresentation of the FMLA. It is in fact a lie and so if your employer does not accord you a reasonable maternity leave when your baby is born, it is violating the law.

It is sex discrimination under federal in your state’s law because your employer gives nonpregnant employees time off to recover from illness or injury, and it’s also disability discrimination because you’re disabled for a certain period of time after your baby is born. So the FMLA is sometimes used to fool employees into believing that they’re on their own and they’re not entitled to protected leave following the birth of their baby.

Make sure if your employer tells you that, you put it in writing back to them, telling them that they’re wrong, that it is pregnancy, sex, and disability discrimination, and give them the opportunity to resolve it, to fix it first in your favor. And if they don’t, you’ll take further action. But you want to document all of it and hopefully, your employer will wake up and permit you to take the leave that you’re entitled to when your baby is born.

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