FMLA - Massachusetts

Paid family and medical leave

The MA paid family and medical leave (PFML) is a state-offered benefit for anyone who works in MA and is eligible to take up to 26 weeks of paid leave for medical or family reasons. PFML is funded through a state tax, and is separate from both the federal FMLA and from leave benefits that may be offered through your company. The premiums are to be submitted quarterly to the Department of Family and Medical Leave (DFML).

The paid leave began 1/1/21. Employees were entitled to take the leave to care for a family member as of 7/1/21.

If you already provide a paid leave benefit to your workforce, you may be eligible to receive an exemption from collecting, remitting, and paying contributions for paid family or medical leave under the state’s PFML law.

The benefits offered to your employees by your approved private plan must be greater than or equal to the benefits provided by the PFML law to be granted an exemption. You can apply for an exemption from the medical leave contribution, family leave contribution, or both.

Sick leave

Employees in Massachusetts are entitled to earn sick leave. The law applies to all private sector employers in the state. If you have 11 or more employees, they are entitled to paid sick leave. If you have 10 or fewer employees, they are entitled to unpaid sick leave.

Employees earn one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked. They may earn and take up to 40 hours in a calendar year. They begin accruing sick leave upon the date of hire. They may use the earned sick leave 90 days after hire. After 90 days, they may use the sick leave as it accrues.

Earned sick leave must be used in hourly increments, or the smallest increment your payroll system uses to account for absences or use of other leave, whichever is smaller.

Employees may use earned sick leave for the following reasons:

• To care for the employee’s child, spouse, parent, or parent of a spouse, who is suffering from a physical or mental illness, injury, or medical condition that requires home care, professional medical diagnosis or care, or preventative medical care;
• To care for the employee’s own physical or mental illness, injury, or medical condition that requires home care, professional medical diagnosis or care, or preventative medical care;
• To attend the employee’s routine medical appointment or a routine medical appointment for the employee’s child, spouse, parent, or parent of spouse; or
• To address the psychological, physical, or legal effects of domestic violence.

Employees may carry over any unused sick leave into the following calendar year, but they are still restricted to using only 40 hours of leave in a year.

When the need for sick leave is foreseeable, the employee must make a good faith effort to provide advance notice.

You may require that employees provide a certification in support of the need for sick leave, but only if the leave lasts for more than 24 consecutive work hours.

You must post a notice of these provisions where eligible employees work.

Parental leave

Massachusetts’ parental leave applies to all public and private employers with six or more employees total, not just in MA.

Small necessities leave

Employees are entitled to a total of 24 hours of unpaid leave during any 12-month period, in addition to leave available under the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, for the following purposes:

• To participate in school activities directly related to the educational advancement of a son or daughter of the employee, such as parent-teacher conferences or interviewing for a new school;
• To accompany the son or daughter of the employee to routine medical or dental appointments, such as check-ups or vaccinations; and
• To accompany an elderly relative of the employee to routine medical or dental appointments or appointments for other professional services related to the elder’s care, such as interviewing at nursing or group homes.

Domestic violence leave

Employers with 50 or more employees must allow an employee to take up to 15 days of leave in a 12-month period if the employee or an employee’s covered family member is a victim of abusive behavior.

Family members include spouses, those in substantive dating or engagement relationships and live together, those having a child in common, parents, stepparents, children, stepchildren, siblings, grandparents, grandchildren, or persons in guardianship relationships.

Except in cases of imminent danger, employees are to provide advance notice of the need for leave, according to company policy.

If an unscheduled leave occurs, employers may not take any negative action against the employee if the employee provides documentation supporting the need for leave within 30 days of the absence.

Employers may require employees to provide documentation supporting that the employee or family member has been a victim of abusive behavior. Such documentation could include, for example, a protective order, a court document, a police report, medical documentation, or a sworn statement.

Leave may be paid or unpaid, at the employer’s discretion.

Employees are to exhaust all available annual or vacation leave, personal leave, and sick leave before requesting domestic violence leave, unless the employer waives this requirement. Employers must notify employees of the rights and responsibilities of the law’s provisions.

According to the state supreme court, the domestic violent leave law applies to applicants. After an applicant accepted a job offer, the offer was rescinded soon after the applicant disclosed that she was a victim of abuse and that her abuser violated a protective order, which she was taking efforts to enforce. The applicant sued, and the court ruled in favor of the applicant. (Osborne Trussell v. The Children’s Hospital Corporation)

Pregnancy Accommodations

Employers with six or more employees must provide reasonable accommodations to employees for pregnancy and related conditions. A condition related to pregnancy can be during or after pregnancy. Examples include, but are not limited to, morning sickness, lactation, or the need to express breast milk. If a pregnant employee, for example, needs to start her workday later than her usual start time due to morning sickness, the employee may be covered by the Act.

Accommodations may include:

• More frequent or longer breaks,
• Time off to recover from childbirth,
• Obtaining or modifying equipment or seating,
• Temporary transfer to a less strenuous or hazardous position,
• Job restructuring,
• Light duty,
• Help with manual labor, and
• Modified work schedules.

Employers need not provide an accommodation that would require significant difficulty or expense, but they would need to be able to prove this. Factors to consider include the nature and cost of the needed accommodation, your company’s financial resources, the overall size of the business, and the effect on expenses and resources of the accommodation on the company.

When an employee requests an accommodation, employers are to engage in an interactive process to identify effective reasonable accommodations. Employers may request reasonable documentation about the need for an accommodation, except for breaks, seating, and limits of lifting over 20 pounds.

You may generally require documentation about the need for accommodation from a health care professional that explains what accommodation the employee needs and, from there, you and the employee should discuss how the accommodation(s) relate to the essential functions of the employee’s job. You may not, however, require documentation for an employee’s need for the following:

• More frequent restroom, food, or water breaks;
• Seating;
• Limits on lifting more than 20 pounds; and
• Private, non-bathroom space for expressing breast milk.

Notice of the anti-discrimination rights must be in a handbook or given to new employees upon hire, and to employees who request an accommodation.

State employee blood donation

Employees of the state of Massachusetts may take up to four hours of paid leave, subject to advance approval by their supervisors to donate blood at any blood collection site or hospital in the state.

The leave must be taken on the day that the blood donation occurs and covers the travel time, donation time, and recovery time.

This leave may be allowed for a maximum of up to five times annually, during the period of October 1 through September 30 each year.

State employee organ donation

Employees of the commonwealth or of a county, or of a city or town that accepts this section, may take a leave of absence of not more than 30 days of paid leave per a calendar year to serve as an organ donor, without loss of leave to which he is otherwise entitled and without loss of credit for time or service.

If the need for leave is foreseeable, employees must give the employer at least 7 days' notice before the leave is to begin.

If the need for leave is not foreseeable, employees must provide notice as soon as practicable.

Employers may require that a request for leave be supported by a certification.