As domestic and foreign adoptions of infants and children become more and more common, employers would be wise to increase their familiarity with the laws requiring leave for employees who adopt. Most employers covered by the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (that is, those with at least 50 employees) are aware that employees eligible for leave under the Act are generally allowed 12 weeks of unpaid leave for placement with the employee of a son or daughter for adoption. Fewer employers, however, may be aware that Kentucky law also requires that they grant reasonable leave (up to six weeks) to adopt a child under the age of seven, and that this requirement applies to all Kentucky employers.
To see how these adoption leave requirements work, let's look at the following hypothetical scenario involving employees Angie and Brad.
Angie has worked full time for five years for Globetrotters International, a 60-employee charitable organization in Lexington. She and her boyfriend, Brad, plan to adopt a baby from Africa. She asks Globetrotters for four weeks of leave to travel to Africa to pick up the baby and deal with adoption procedures. Globetrotters grants the leave. After the four weeks expires, Angie requests to go on a part-time schedule (four hours a day) for eight weeks, explaining that she needs time to bond with the baby. Globetrotters tells Angie she may not take the additional eight weeks leave.
Brad is employed by the Pitt Stop, a 20-employee diner in Lexington. Wanting to accompany Angie to Africa to pick up their baby and also wanting some extra time to bond with the baby after returning, he submits a written request for six weeks of leave. The Pitt Stop tells Brad the company is not covered by the FMLA and that the company has too much work right now for him to be gone for six weeks. It denies the leave request.
Have Globetrotters and the Pitt Stop acted properly?
We can tell from the facts that Angie is eligible for leave under the FMLA, since her employer has more than 50 employees, all in Lexington, and since Angie has worked for over 12 months full time. (A full-time schedule exceeds the minimum 1,250 hours during the past 12 months, as required for FMLA eligibility.) The reason Angie seeks the first four weeks of leave, i.e., to pick up the baby for adoption and to deal with adoption procedures, falls within one of the permitted reasons for leave: placement with the employee of a son or daughter for adoption. (Placement for foster care is also a permitted reason for leave). Angie is thus eligible for up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave in order to engage in the placement process. Her four weeks of continuous leave qualify for that purpose. What about the eight additional weeks of part-time leave (or, in FMLA terms, "reduced schedule leave)? According to the FMLA regulations