Maternity Leave: Return to Work Part-time
Under FMLA
Note: This page is an Appendix of the Max Maternity Leave
Proposal Template & Negotiation Guide. Don't have it ?
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Here's good news you won't find on the (USA) Family &
Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
poster at your workplace:
Reduced leave schedule is a little-known provision of FMLA that may
allow you to follow your maternity leave with a temporary part-time schedule.
Under FMLA, you may be able to take your initial six weeks of full-time-off
maternity leave, then follow it with a temporary part-time schedule
before you return to a full-time schedule.
Consider it Your Customized Phase-Back-to-Work PlanEven though you may qualify for 12 weeks of leave under FMLA, your household
budget or employer pressure may compel your return to work after only six weeks
of leave.
A better-paced maternity leave might be six full weeks off, then a transition
period of working part-time hours, then back to full-time. This allows you to
retain partial earnings even as you enjoy more time to bond with your baby.
Is that option possible? Yes! Besides the emotional benefits, a transitional
approach makes it easier to continue breastfeeding and to fine-tune your
work-family management strategies.
FMLA's reduced leave schedule is not only little-known, it is hardly publicized.
So until now, you probably didn't know about this creative approach to
maternity leave.
Here's How it Works
Start by converting the 12 weeks of allowed FMLA leave into its equivalent
hours: 480 hours of leave available (that is, 40 hours for each week).
Then, figure the number of remaining hours available for flexing into a
temporary part-time schedule after your maternity leave is over.
Here’s an example:
After her six weeks (240 hours) of maternity leave, Amy had 240 hours of
FMLA leave remaining.
Using FMLA's reduced leave schedule provision, she negotiated to
work three days per week during her initial four weeks back to work.
In other words, she took two days of leave per week for four weeks, using up 64
hours of her 240 remaining allowed leave hours.
Then she worked four days per week and took one day of leave in each of the
next 22 weeks (8 hours per week x 22 weeks = 176 more hours used).
With her 240
remaining hours used up, she then resumed her full-time schedule.
But she first had 26 weeks of a part-time schedule. That’s
half a year to spend more time with her baby while still bringing in steady
income.
(Note that you're not required to use all your leave hours,
but if you do, they must end within 12 months of the birth of your child—or
placement of your child, if adopted or fostered.)
So while you may be unable to afford lengthy unpaid time off, by flexing your
unused hours after maternity leave into a reduced leave (part-time) schedule,
you can enjoy more time with your baby as you resume earning part of your pay.
Remember, even if you qualify for 480 hours of family leave under FMLA, once any
(if any) employer-paid leave is used up, the remainder of the allowed weeks (or
hours) is generally unpaid, and you would not be eligible for unemployment
compensation during this time.
To Pull This Off You Must...To use this provision of FMLA, you must first get your employer's agreement
if medical necessity is not a factor, as is often the case in the
period after the six weeks of post-birth maternity (medical) leave.
Quoting from
the U.S. Department of Labor:
When leave is taken after the birth of a healthy child or placement of a
healthy child for adoption or foster care, an employee may take leave
intermittently or on a reduced leave schedule only if the employer
agrees.
How Do You Get Your Employer’s Agreement?
 The time-proven way to get approval of flexible work is to present
a written proposal to your immediate manager. It must address not only your
part-time scheduling needs, but also your employer's bottom-line interests.
Thousands of moms before you have received approval of a family-friendly
arrangement by using the WorkOptions Proposal Package to create a
persuasive document to present to the manager. The
Part-time version would be the best
pick for phasing back to work.
Positioning and Presentation Help You Get Acceptance
When it's time to present your proposal, be sure to position the phase-back
arrangement in a positive light.
Even if you're not eligible for leave under FMLA, you may want to develop a
proposal for a similar approach to your maternity leave.
In any case, it's a good idea to present your phase-back, reduced leave schedule
proposal as the final issue of discussion of your overall maternity leave
work-coverage plan, as positioned in the RETURN TO WORK section.
Go to Max Maternity Leave Appendix:
Negotiating Paid Leave
Return to Maternity Leave Articles Index
Do you need help negotiating your desired
maternity leave?
Visit Maternity Leave Mentor for advice by phone.
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