Minnesota law requires an employer to provide up to six weeks of unpaid parental leave to a mother or father upon the birth or adoption of a child if the company employs at least 21 or more employees at any one site, and the employee works at least half time and has been with the company for at least 12 consecutive months.
| What you should know |
| The leave must begin at a time requested by the employee. |
| The employer may adopt reasonable policies governing the timing of requests for leave. |
| The leave may begin not more than six weeks after the birth or adoption. |
| The leave can be reduced by any period of paid parental or disability leave, but not accrued sick leave, so that total time off does not exceed six weeks unless the employer agrees. |
| Health insurance offered through the employer must be continued during the employee's leave. The employee may be asked to pay for this coverage. |
| While an employee is pregnant, she may be entitled to any sick leave or disability leave the company offers if she is sick during her pregnancy or when recovering after childbirth. |
| If an employee takes a parental leave, the employer cannot retaliate against that employee for requesting or taking a leave. |
Employees are entitled to employment in their former position or one with comparable duties, number of hours and pay. The employee is also entitled to the same benefits and seniority they had before the leave.
Employees may return to work part-time during the leave without forfeiting the right to return to full-time work at the end of the leave.
Other
working-parent rightsCaring for sick children -- Employees who work at least half time are allowed to use accrued sick leave to care for their sick child.
Visiting school and early childhood programs -- Every employee is entitled to take up to 16 hours unpaid leave a year to attend their children's school conferences, classroom activities, child care or other early childhood program. Employees may use vacation time.
Nursing mothers -- An employee must be provided reasonable unpaid break time to express breast milk for her child. Breaks already provided may fulfull this requirement. Employers are not required to provide this time if doing so would seriously disrupt operations. The employer must also make reasonable efforts to provide a private area for this purpose, other than a toilet stall.
For more information about working-parent rights, contact Labor Standards at dli.laborstandards@state.mn.us,(651) 284-5070, 1-800-342-5354 or TTY (651) 297-4198.
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