Human Resource Blog

Indiana Maternity Leave and Company Approval

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Our Indiana firm has a big project coming up and cannot really afford to let one of our key account managers take time off. Unfortunately, she is pregnant and may have to take her maternity leave right when this project heats up. I have heard of companies that have their employees take their full maternity leaves later in the year, but only take a one or two week leave right after the baby is born. Can we require our employee to take this route? If not, can we take action against the employee for insubordination?

No. There are very strict federal laws in place that guard the maternity leave time off very closely. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) is a federal Act that applies to companies in states across the country. The Act basically is in place to ensure that when there is an employee that needs to take time off for a pregnancy, that employee will still have a job to return to when she is through with her maternity leave.

When you have an employee that takes a maternity leave, the PDA states that you should treat that employee the same way that you would treat any employee that is out on leave. These employees are entitled to the same treatment as all other employees that take a disability leave, for example.

One of the most important things to keep in mind when you have an employee out on her pregnancy leave is that the employee should expect to return to the same position (or an equivalent position) with the same pay, the same benefits, and the same general working conditions. You are not allowed to treat that employee any differently than you otherwise would simply because she has been away on her maternity leave.

Also, just as if you had someone away on a disability leave, you are not allowed to terminate discipline that employee during her absence for so-called insubordination if she did not take her maternity leave when you requested her to. Unless you already had a plan in place to terminate or discipline your employee for an unrelated reason, you may not terminate or discipline her.

As far as your ability to control the timeframe of the maternity leave goes, you may not establish a beginning date or an end date for the maternity leave. In general, many women will take a few days or a few weeks off of work before the baby is due. However, this is entirely up to the employee; not the employer.

However, while she is on leave, you are allowed to hire a temporary replacement for her.  CB