Disability Leave For Pregnancy – Pregnant women will have the right to leave their working environment for birth preparation. The law itself defines Pregnancy Disability Leave or PDL as the period when the employee is taking the disability leave due to the pregnancy, childbirth, and other related medical conditions. By using this right, the employees will be able to go back to the same or similar position after the leave. Here are some things which you should know related to the disability leave for pregnancy.
Before taking any disability leave for pregnancy, your employers might check whether you are eligible or not to take the leave. To prove that you are eligible in taking the leave, you might need to provide the eligibility which supports your statement. You can get the eligibility from various medical treatment providers. The information from these medical providers will confirm the condition of the employees when they are not able to keep working due to the pregnancy, childbirth, or other related medical conditions. PDL will give the coverage for their employees for more than 4 months. PDL usually comes with FMLA combination.
After using the benefits of FMLA and PDL, the employees might be eligible to take parental leave. By taking parental leave, you will have 12 additional weeks under CFRA or California Family Rights Act. As the result, an employee might get seven months of disability leave for pregnancy as the maximum. The leave consists of 4 months Pregnancy Disability Leave or FMLA and 3-months CFRA.
Before you take disability leave for pregnancy, you have to give the notification to your employers. Your supervisor will tell you to fill in the Family and Medical Leave forms. These forms are not filled by the employee but also the medical treatment provider. After completing to fill the forms, you need to return the forms to the department. Next, the employees have to contact the Benefits & Financial Planning in Human Resources to get the Disability Claim packet. Your supervisor will refer you to the campus payroll department. This process has the purpose to arrange the personal payments from health insurance premiums when the employees are on uncovered or unpaid leave. The supervisors might remind you to add the newborn baby to your health plans.
Disability leave for pregnancy is also known as maternity leave, parental leave, and family leave. When you are taking disability leave for childbirth purpose, you will get coverage for you leave time and normal salary with combination short-term disability, vacation, sick time, and also unpaid family leave time. You should remember that each company has different policies on how much leave time which you can take.
Disability Leave For Pregnancy Coverage
The standard coverage for disability leave for pregnancy is approximately six weeks. The employees might get additional weeks if there is any complication during the pregnancy or the employee has cesarean. The policy from your employer, state, or private insurance might not include the bed rest before the birth. However, it is possible for you to leave earlier because you have to take bed rest before childbirth as it is specifically ordered by the doctors. You need to check with your short term-disability provider to know whether they offer the coverage the bed rest before childbirth or not.
The short term disability leave for pregnancy ranges from four to six weeks. The employees will get the payment for one-half to two-thirds of the salary. However, if you face any complication after the birth, you might get the disability payments which can last more than 12 weeks. When the employer or private short-term disability provider gives you the payment, the number is providing 50 to 100 percent of the paycheck for certain number of weeks. Make sure you check it with your employers or insurance provider to determine the amount which you will get.
There are some companies which require you to use the vacation and sick time before taking short term disability. Other companies will tell you to be out of work at least a week before you can take the disability benefits. Some mothers return to work sooner than expected since their benefits only paid half of their normal salary. If you need additional time for disability leave for pregnancy, you might want to check with your employers to check if the additional time is able to be covered under the Family Medical Leave Act.
References:
- Disability Leave and Pregnancy. ehow.com/about_6626210_disability-leave-pregnancy.html#ixzz27Ypmj77M
- Pregnancy Disability Leave. ucsfhr.ucsf.edu/index.php/pubs/article/pregnancy-disability-leave/
- Images: losangelesemployeelawyer.com
Article publié pour la première fois le 26/09/2015