Information Awareness Statement

Question: What rights does a pregnant woman have to maternity leave in Ohio? What are the requirements she must meet to exercise those rights

I came across these questions while having lunch with a very good friend on mine who is expecting her first child in October. She works for a newly formed private equity firm that does not have policies and procedures in place.

I consulted with my husband, Mike, he is general counsel for the Fraternal Order of Police. I also consulted with some of the attorneys that I work with at Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff LLP, in the Labor and Employment Department, as I thought they would have some idea as to the answer to this question. I asked them in general about maternity leave in Ohio and the rules and regulations governing maternity leave. I was somewhat familiar with the leave requirements from taking leave when my two children were born.

Second, I performed research on-line using terms such as:

maternity leave in Ohio
notice requirements for maternity leave
employer obligations
laws governing maternity leave in Ohio
employee requirements under the Family Medical Leave Act
employer requirements under the Family Medical Leave Act
pregnant and laws in Ohio
pregnancy and notice
discrimination and maternity and Ohio
Family Medial Leave Act
FMLA and notice requirement
Pregnant and rights
Pregnancy and rights in Ohio

Some of the URL’s that I searched are:

http://www.employerlawreport.com/
http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus
http://www.crc.ohio/gov/disc_employment.htm
http:/www.jacksonlewis.com/legalupdates
http://www.ogletreedeakins.com/publications
http:/www.employer-employee.com/fmla

Laws governing maternity leave fall somewhere in the gray area between black and white. Ohio law requires that all pregnant employees be provided a “reasonable” maternity leave, regardless of the employer’s size, the employee’s tenure, or the language of a leave policy. If an employee asks for leave for maternity leave on her first day of employment, it must be given and she must be restored at the end of her leave. The problem and the question with this is what “reasonable” means and how is it determined and by whom. Is it determined by a doctor and for how long?

Maternity leave is often misunderstood and as I mentioned earlier, there are a lot of gray areas involving this employment law issue. The Family and Medical Leave Act provides for 12 weeks of maternity leave for employees to meet the following criteria (i) employees must have worked at least 1,250 hours in the prior 12 months for businesses that have 50 or more employees. The employment discrimination laws require that the pregnant women be treated no differently than those with similarly debilitation conditions. Many companies believe that if they do not meet the 50 employee requirement, that they are too small for FMLA coverage or if the FMLA does not cover a certain employee, they can deny leave under a leave of absence policy. FMLA can be taken on an intermittent basis allowing the employee to work on a less than full time schedule. The benefits of the employee will be maintained while the employee is on leave, however, they must continue to pay their portion during leave. The employee also has the right to return to the same position, pay and benefits at the conclusion of their leave. They must provide 30 days advance notice for foreeseable event and may be asked by the employer to obtain medical certification to prove the need to take the leave.

I was satisfied with the results of my research. The answers that I found are valid are the material was very helpful. I was able to reach my conclusion rather quickly and without additional questions or research needed. Therefore, I did not continue my search beyond the initial phase.

I learned that having a specific question in mind and knowing where to look for the answers is key. Starting with a specific question and searching the correct terms and combinations of those terms will generally produce results that are helpful. Networking is also important. People are often a great resource tool to have and can generally point you in the right direction. My colleagues were very helpful in pointing me in the right direction and I was able to read through the information and decide what was relevant to finding the answer to my question.