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Ohio Supreme Court Changes Ohio’s Pregnancy Leave Laws
On June 22, 2010 the Ohio Supreme Court decided in Nursing Care Mgmt. of Am. v. Ohio Civ. Rights Comm., that an employer’s uniformly applied policy that did not provide an exception for maternity leave did not violate Ohio law. In Nursing Care Mgmt., the policy in question required that an employee be employed for a period of one year before he or she would be eligible for leave for any purpose. After working for her employer for approximately 8 months, the employee took leave for an illness related to her pregnancy. Soon thereafter, while absent from work, the employee gave birth and was terminated three days later. The basis for the termination was the employee’s absence before she had become eligible for leave under the written employment policy.The court ruled that Ohio law requires that pregnant employees are treated the same as non-pregnant employees who are similarly situated with respect to their ability to work. The court made it clear that Ohio law does not treat pregnant employees more favorably than other employees. In reconciling the Ohio Civil Rights Commission’s regulation, OAC 4112-5-05(G)(2), which prohibits the termination of an employee under a policy that provides insufficient or no leave for pregnancy or a related medical condition, with its regulation OAC 4112-5-05(G)(5), which instructs that women should not be penalized for taking time off for pregnancy leave, if they are eligible to do so, the court found that the former must be construed in light of the latter. Accordingly, the court found that OAC 4112-5-05(G)(2) must mean that when “an employee is otherwise eligible for leave,” the employer cannot lawfully terminate that employee for violating a policy that provides no leave or insufficient leave. This finding was in direct conflict with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission prior interpretation of its regulations which required employers to provide maternity leave regardless of its policies.
An employer may now apply a uniform leave policy to include pregnant employees. As such, if no leave is available to similarly situated non-pregnant employees then no leave will be available to pregnant employees. Keep in mind that the FMLA also applies to pregnant employees. The FMLA applies to employers with over 50 employees and allows up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to employees who worked at that employer for 12 months and at least 1250 hours. Additionally, an employer must offer the same leave benefits to pregnant employees that it offers to similarly situated non-pregnant employees who need time off. If you have any questions regarding this or any other matter, please do not hesitate to call Ryan at Ross, Brittain and Schonberg at 216-447-1551.