Tag: unpaid leave

Employers Increasingly Offer PTO for Adoption (Infographic)

Employers are increasingly offering paid time off for adoptions, according to a new report from consulting group Mercer. The benefit is likely an attempt to meet the needs of a workforce in which the definition of “family” now includes same-sex parents, the firm said. While employees in the U.S. have access to 12 weeks’ unpaid […]

Ask the Expert: Military Leave—Paid or Unpaid?

We have an employee that just came back from military leave. He did not present orders to HR or payroll and turned in a timecard with “5 days Military Leave” written across the week he was gone. Payroll paid him for that week and deducted 40 hours of leave. The employee came back stating that […]

EEOC Guidance for Employer-Provided Leave as a Reasonable Accommodation Under the ADA

By Norasha L. Williams, JD, Cozen O’Connor Quite possibly as a direct consequence of what the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) describes as a “troubling trend” in the prevalence of employer policies denying or restricting the use of leave as a reasonable accommodation, the Commission recently issued guidelines emphasizing the necessity to offer leaves of […]

Alcoholism and how USC may have violated ADA by firing Steve Sarkisian

On October 12, 2015, Steve Sarkisian was fired as  head coach of the University of Southern California (USC) football team. While USC contends Sarkisian was fired for “cause,” there is no question that his alcohol-related behavior led to his termination. Whether the termination was or was not properly for “cause” is relevant, in part, because […]

Men don’t [take] leave

At least that’s what former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason and radio talk show host Mike Francesa believe. Their critical comments of New York Mets second baseman Daniel Murphy, particularly those made by Esiason, recently created a storm of controversy that extended beyond just the sports world. Murphy missed the first two games of the 2014 […]

Another New Leave of Absence for Canadians?

By Ralph N. Nero and Fida Hindi Canadian employees are entitled to all sorts of leaves – maternity leaves, parental leaves, sick leaves, emergency leaves, leave for the disappearance of a minor child, and the list goes on. Now Ontario may be joining Quebec by creating yet another new category of leave of absence for […]

Ask the Expert: A few years ago, we hired our 50th employee and updated the handbook to include FMLA. We just went down to 49 employees. Do we update the handbook again?

December 17, 2010 Determining whether an employer has 50 employees for purposes of the FMLA can be complex. As you are aware, under the FMLA regulations, an employer covered by FMLA is any person engaged in commerce or in any industry or activity affecting commerce, who employs 50 or more employees for each working day […]

White House Expands Domestic Partner Benefits

President Barack Obama recently issued a memo directing federal agencies to extend benefits to the same-sex domestic partners of federal employees to the extent permitted by current law. The memo begins: For far too long, many of our Government’s hard-working, dedicated LGBT employees have been denied equal access to the basic rights and benefits their […]