Privacy, Business and Law

On April 10, 2000, the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD) issued guidelines to provide guidance to practitioners, employers, individuals and MCAD staff about how to interpret, apply and enforce the Massachusetts Maternity Leave Act (MMLA).
The following are some of the key points contained in the new interpretative guidelines recently issued by MCAD:

• A full-time female employee is eligible for eight weeks of unpaid maternity leave for the purpose of giving birth or adopting a child if she has been employed for at least three months, regardless of whether she is disabled. The term purpose of giving birth means any absence to prepare or participate in the birth or adoption of a child; thus, leave is available at the time of birth or adoption, but not substantially earlier or later.
• The employee must give her employer at least two weeks notice of her anticipated date of departure and intention to return. Anticipated date does not mean exact date, and thus, if an employee gives birth prematurely, she is still entitled to start the leave earlier. MCAD expects employers and employees to communicate in good faith regarding these dates.
• An employee is entitled to maternity leave even if granting leave would cause hardship to the employer.
• While the guidelines do not require leave for male employees, MCAD has stated that failure to provide equivalent leaves would violate laws against sex discrimination.
• Although employees may voluntarily use any accrued vacation or sick time concurrently with all or part of maternity leave, employers can not require an employer to use this time even if such requirement is imposed upon employees on non-maternity leaves of absences.
• Pregnancy-related disabilities unrelated to giving birth are not counted toward the eight week leave period.
• The employee is entitled to eight weeks of leave each time she gives birth or adopts a child. Thus, if she gives birth to twinsor adopts two babies, the employee is entitled to sixteen weeks of leave under the MMLA. Or, if she gives birth to a child in January and adopts a child in June, she would be entitled to two separate eight week leaves under the MMLA.
• Where leave is taken for a reason specified in the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the leave may be counted simultaneously against the employee’s entitlement under both the federal and state statutes. However, if an employee took leave for the serious health condition of a spouse, child, parent, or her own disability, she would still be entitled to the eight week maternity leave under the MMLA. For example, if she takes 12 weeks of leave in January to care for a parent with a serious medical condition, she would still be entitled to the eight weeks of maternity leave if she has, or adopts, a baby in June.
• An employer can grant maternity leave longer than the eight weeks required by MMLA; however, if the employer does not intend for the full MMLA rights to apply to the period beyond the eight weeks, the employer must clearly inform the employee in writing of that fact prior to the commencement of the leave.

It is very important for employers with Massachusetts employees to comply with the interpretations contained in the guidelines; the penalties for non-compliance with the MMLA include punitive damages and attorneys’ fees.