[jmck79]

I live in New Jersey and my estimated date of delivery is August 7, 2009. I just wanted to know if I understand the maternity leave laws in New Jersey correctly, paid and unpaid, job protection and all the short term disability, family paid leave law, etc. I am a fulltime employee at a company that has 50+ employees. We don't have a paid maternity leave but we do have a TDI private plan which is similar to the NJ state version.

Based from my research, is it true that I can potentially have a maternity leave of 24 weeks (6 months) both paid and unpaid? This is how I came to this calculation:

FMLA law: 12 weeks out of a 12 months for your own disability
I can use my 4 weeks before due date & 6-8 weeks after for normal or ceasarian so that's about 10 - 12 weeks potentially, so I will be using our Temporary Disability Benefits/Short Term Disability so this will all be paid 2/3 of my salary

NJ FLA law: 12 weeks out of 24 months to care for or bond with child
Corzine passed the new law of NJ Family Leave Act where I could get paid for 6 weeks 2/3 of my salary.
The other 6 weeks will be unpaid or I will use any remaining vacation/sick time I have.

Please let me know if I am correct in my assumptions. I just want to make sure my job is protected and that I used the maximum time off? I may not take all 6 months but I just wanted to understand in case I do need to take that much time off.

Thank you.

PS: I don't want to ask our HR person because let's just say he is a jack of all trades in that he hold a lot of different positions in that he wont really be truthful or doesn't answer my questions straightforward. So he isn't really "there for the employee". Thanks.

 

[michelle123]

The way I understood it is that the 2 leaves are concurrent, that they cannot be piggy-backed. I also was under the understanding that sick leave and vacation time needed to be used before the NJ 2/3 salary, not after. I could be wrong, though. Every company has their own rules about this. Some allow a longer leave w/o pay or benefits that is longer than either law. You should probably check with your HR person.

 

[Mrs. B]

I am in PA where they run concurrent, but i believe NJ it is consecutive. Employees in my old company used to get much longer in NJ than PA because of this. This was about 6 years ago, so I don't know if they changed things recently, though.

 

[dlm194]

You need to check with your company if you have private TDI. I had private short term disability insurance (STD) so I had to follow company guidelines. I could have applied for disabilty through NJ but I would have been on my own! NJ guidelines for pregnancy disability say that you should get out 4 weeks before your due date.

1st baby: Got out 2 weeks ahead of due date since i had no complications (no note needed). STD covered me up until the birth and for 8 weeks after (c-section). Company then allowed me to take 2 weeks vacation and then 12 weeks of unpaid FMLA (federal law).

2nd baby: STD would only give me as much time off ahead of my due date as my doctor or midwife would write me out (if I didn't get written out, I was expected to work up until I went into labor. Yes, I asked and yes, that was the answer I got). Midwife wrote me out 4 weeks ahead of time since i was having contractions and a lot of pressure. I was paid up until delivery and then for 6 weeks after (vaginal delivery). I was allowed to take vacation time concurrently with FMLA so that i was paid for an addition 1 week of the next 12 weeks I had off (the last 11 weeks were unpaid).

My company does not run STD and FMLA time concurrently which is nice but that's not typical. Obviously things changed between baby #1 and #2 though!!

 

[hae703]

When I used FMLA in early 08 you could not take NJ Family Leave and FMLA leave consecutively. So that would only be 12 weeks total and would use up both.

Unless they changed the law with this new paid stuff.

 

[mom2Jordan]

That's weird we have different experiences. My job allowed me to use the FMLA (12 weeks) then the NJ FLA (another 12 weeks) consecutively in 2006, so I did have 24 weeks. Also I got NJ temporary disability for the 2-3 weeks before birth that I was out and then 8 weeks w/cesarean. My company supplemented the temporary disability with vacation salary so I was paid for a few months before going unpaid (you get around 500 per week max for temp disability, my company added the equivalent of the rest of my paycheck to that).
I will be going out on leave in July and my impression is the same rules apply. I don't know why people are having such variations.

 

[stretch358]

NJFLA and FMLA should only run partially concurrently if you take disability

Disibility 4 weeks before (you may need a dr. note for this part) and 6 -8 weeks after (depending on vag or c-section). Disibility should be 2/3 pay, your company may require you use up sick days and vacation befor getting disability. Disibility runs concurently with FMLA. If you read the NJ FLA act it says it can not be taken for your own disibility. So the weeks befor birth do not count against your 12 weeks. Depending on how your company reads the law NJFMLA starts counting at the birt or after your disibility is over. (I personally think it should be the latter.) Also the first six weeks after disibility on NJFMLA is also paid at 2/3 pay.

I know this all sounded complicated example 2 here http://www.rsionline.com/ResourceCen...ndustry_27.pdf explains it better

 

[meganmarie]

My head hurts.

It sounds like there are differences in the way the company can interpret the law (and of course they may have their own paid/unpaid LOA policies also - mine does). Therefore, I don't see how you get out of asking your HR person, even if he's untrustworthy.

If you get to the point in a pregnancy where you are out in public and its clear that mat leave is an issue, that conversation seems inevitable anyway. Obviously you don't want to walk up and say "I'm trying to take the maximum allowable leave, please explain how I can use the NJ laws and your policies to get the most coverage and time!"

Rather, you ask an open-ended question like "what are the company's maternity leave policies? what do I need to know and expect in planning for a leave?" Then, when you have the answer (which *should* be in writing in some company manual anyway!!) you can go to the NJ state labor dept and ask whether what he is telling you is consistent with what the law prescribes.

 

[Katc8910]

I just researched this issue recently. Here is the info:

Family Leave Insurance (paid):
http://lwd.state.nj.us/labor/fli/fliindex.html
http://lwd.state.nj.us/labor/fli/con...act_sheet.html
A claimant can receive a maximum of six weeks of Family Leave Insurance benefits in a 12 month period.
An employee who intends to take a leave and claim Family Leave Insurance benefits to bond with a newborn or newly adopted child must give the employer thirty (30) days notice prior to the beginning of the leave. Intermittent leave to bond with a newborn or newly adopted child must be taken in periods of seven (7) days or more and the intermittent schedule must be agreed to by the employee and the employer.
An employer can require an employee to use up to two weeks of any paid sick leave, vacation time, or other leave at full pay made available by the employer.
The weekly benefit rate is two-thirds (2/3) of the average weekly wage up to a maximum of $546 for claims beginning July 1, 2009. The daily benefit rate is one-seventh (1/7) of the weekly benefit rate. The maximum amount of benefits payable for Family Leave Insurance is six weeks (42 days) during the 12 month period or one third (1/3) of the base year earnings, whichever is less.

Also - they run concurrently for a total max. of 12 weeks.

Hope this helps.
Kat