Human Resource Blog

Return from maternity leave with less hours

There is a staff member who is now coming back from maternity leave and the current supervisor has talked to the family (we work in consumers homes similar to home health care) and they would like to now share hours with more than one staff member. Before maternity leave the staff member was working 25-30 hours per week. Now it will be about 15-20. Can the employer do this? Can this staff member file for unemployment due to a reduction in hours?

The answers are yes and yes, assuming that the maternity leave was granted under FMLA, the federal Family and Medical Leave Act. An employer can take any action against an employee who was on FMLA, that would have been taken anyway if the employee was not on FMLA.

However, if the clients wants to split the hours between the employee who was on maternity leave and her replacement, that may pose a problem. The client may have very well been manipulated by the replacement into doing this, so the replacement does not lose all the hours. The employer should have explained to the client that the staff member on maternity leave would be returning.

The second part of the question is easier — yes, if the staff member was formerly working 30 hours per week and is now working 15 hours per week, she can apply for unemployment benefits.