Leave - Ohio

Jury duty

Ohio law doesn’t require private employers to pay employees for jury duty. Employers may not, however, require or request an employee to use annual, vacation, or sick leave for time spent responding to a summons for jury duty, time spent participating in the jury selection process, or for time spent actually serving on a jury.

Voting

Ohio law allows an employee to take a reasonable time to vote. Pay deductions are not mentioned. 

Judicial proceeding

Ohio law provides that employers of a victim cannot discharge, discipline, or otherwise retaliate against the victim, a member of the victim's family, or a victim's representative for participating, at the prosecutor's request, in preparation for a criminal or delinquency proceeding or for attendance, pursuant to a subpoena, at a criminal or delinquency proceeding if the attendance is reasonably necessary to protect the interests of the victim. The law generally does not require an employer to pay an employee for time lost as a result of attendance at a criminal or delinquency proceeding. An employer who knowingly violates this section is in contempt of court.

Volunteer firefighter or emergency medical services provider

Ohio law prohibits employers from terminating employees for absence or tardiness due to responding to an emergency prior to the scheduled reporting time. This law applies to employees who are:

• members of a volunteer fire department,
• employed by a political subdivision of the state as a volunteer firefighter, or
• volunteer providers of emergency medical services

An employer may charge any time that such an employee loses against the employee’s regular pay.

An employee who is a volunteer firefighter or volunteer provider of emergency medical services must do all of the following:

• Not later than 30 days after receiving certification as a volunteer firefighter or a volunteer provider of emergency services, submit to the employer a written notification signed by the chief of the volunteer fire department with which the employee serves, or the medical director or chief administrator of the cooperating physician advisory board of the emergency medical organization with which the employee serves, to notify the employer of his or her status as a volunteer;
• Make every effort to notify the employer that the employee may report late or be absent from work due to an emergency. If notification cannot be made, the employee must submit a written explanation from the chief of the volunteer fire department, or the medical director or chief administrator of the cooperating physician advisory board of the emergency medical service organization, to explain why prior notice was not given.

At the employer’s request, an employee who loses time to respond to an emergency must provide a written statement from the chief of the volunteer fire department or the medical director or chief administrator of the cooperating physician advisory board of the emergency medical service organization, as applicable, stating that the employee responded to an emergency and listing the time of that response.

Military family leave

Ohio allows employees to take leave for reasons similar to the FMLA’s qualifying exigency provisions, or leave to care for an injured servicemember, although state law is more restrictive. Once per calendar year, an employer shall allow an employee to take leave up to 10 days or 80 hours, whichever is less.

“Employer” means a person who employs 50 or more employees and includes the state or any agency or instrumentality of the state, and any municipal corporation, county, township, school district, or other political subdivision of the state.

For employees to be eligible for such leave, the following conditions must be satisfied:

1. The employer has employed the employee for at least 12 consecutive months and for at least 1,250 hours in the 12 months immediately preceding commencement of the leave.
2. The employee is the parent, spouse, or a person who has or had legal custody of a person who is a member of the uniformed services and who is called into active duty for a period longer than 30 days, or who is injured, wounded, or hospitalized while serving on active duty in the uniformed services.
   
   • “Active duty” means full-time duty in the active military service of the United States or active duty pursuant to an Executive Order of the President of the United States, an act of the congress of the United States, or a proclamation of the governor. “Active duty” does not include active duty for training, initial active duty for training, or the period of time for which a person is absent from employment for an examination to determine the fitness of the person to perform any duty unless such period is contemporaneous with an active duty period.
   • “Uniformed services” means the armed forces, the Ohio Organized Militia when engaged in full-time national guard duty, the commissioned corps of the public health service, and any other category of persons designated by the President of the United States in time of war or emergency.
3. The employee gives notice to the employer at least 14 days prior to taking leave if the leave is being taken because of a call to active duty, or at least two days prior if the leave is being taken because of an injury, wound, or hospitalization. If the employee receives notice from a representative of the uniformed services that the injury, wound, or hospitalization is of a critical or life-threatening nature, the employee may take the leave without providing notice to the employer.
4. The dates on which the employee takes leave occur no more than two weeks prior to or one week after the deployment date of the employee's spouse, child, or ward or former ward.
5. The employee does not have any other leave available for the employee's use except sick leave or disability leave.

An employer may require an employee requesting such leave to provide certification from the appropriate military authority to verify that the employee satisfies the criteria described in divisions (2), (3), and (4) above.