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We have a pregnant employee who will become eligible for FMLA about 2 months after her due date.
She wants to request FMLA leave beginning the time she becomes eligible (after being employed for 12 months). Do we have to provide the FMLA leave request? She is an instructor and we would have to get a substitute for her during her absence.
Once eligible, employees may use their 12 weeks of unpaid FMLA leave for the care and bonding of a newborn child for up to one year after birth. There does not need to be a serious health condition or medical necessity for this parental leave.
Additionally, though the employee will give birth before she becomes eligible for FMLA, this will not affect her eligibility for the full 12 weeks of parental bonding leave once she does reach the one year employment/FMLA eligibility mark. So even though she will give birth 2 months she becomes eligible, she will still be entitled to 12-weeks of bonding leave at any time between her FMLA eligibility date and one year after the birth of her child.
With this in mind, parental leave is flexible and, if it is an amenable option for both the employer and the employee, it may be taken on an intermittent or reduced schedule basis at the employer’s approval. (In other words, when parental leave is for bonding and is not based on medical necessity, the decision to allow it to be taken on an intermittent or reduced schedule basis is at the discretion of the employer. However, it sounds as though this might be a situation where intermittent leave could be of benefit to all parties.)
A few suggestions might include:
• Co-teaching with a substitute/another instructor in which the faculty member takes on, for example, preparing assignments or giving lectures while the other instructor assists with grading, student meetings, etc.
• Intermittent leave through which the faculty member takes bonding leave for some portion of the week, then teaches for the other portion of the week.
• Co-teaching an interdisciplinary subject with another instructor in which one faculty member teaches for the first half of the semester, then the second faculty member picks up the second half of the course.
• Allowing the faculty member to pre-prepare her course materials and instruction before her due date, then allowing the substitute to administer and proctor those materials as necessary until the faculty member can return and take over the remainder of the course.
• Considering distance or remote learning as a means for the faculty member to host or participate in classes while she is on leave.
Certainly if none of these options are workable for the employer or of interest to the employee, then the best alternative would be to simply allow the employee to take her full leave entitlement as desired, then to have her pick up instruction (as practical) upon her return to work.