10 Things to Know About Using New York Paid Family Leave

We’ve posted a few articles about how the upcoming New York Paid Family Leave (PFL) law will affect employers, but your employees may have many questions about how they can use this new benefit. Our friends at ShelterPoint have put together this handy list of 10 things your employees should know about using New York Paid Family Leave.

1. For foreseeable events (such as birth or scheduled treatments/therapy), you should provide your employer with a 30-day notice of intent before using PFL benefits. If you are not able to provide this notice due to the sudden nature of the qualifying event (such as a family member’s stroke, emergency delivery, or short-notice deployment), you are still entitled to the leave but have to notify the employer as soon as reasonably practicable (typically within 2 days).
2. If you take intermittent leave, your employer has the right to require you to provide notice before each day of leave – even if it is a regular schedule.
3. There is no “waiting period.”
4. Once on leave, you will receive a monetary PFL benefit (partial income replacement) from your employer’s DBL/PFL insurance carrier.
5. You can’t take DBL and PFL at the same time, i.e, receive benefits for both concurrently. They have to be taken in sequence. And if you qualify for both DBL and PFL, the combined duration cannot exceed 26 weeks in a consecutive 52-week period (whether using those benefits for the same or different qualifying event).
6. Your employer cannot require you to use up your accumulated paid time off (such as sick/vacation days) before letting you go out on paid family leave.
7. You have, however, the option to use accrued vacation days during your Paid Family Leave, thereby receiving your full salary as opposed to the percentage provided for by PFL. However, if you do this:
   • You will not be able to collect both paid time off (such as vacation pay) and monetary Paid Family Leave benefits simultaneously.
   • In this case, PFL provides only the job protection aspect.
8. If the business you work for has 50 or more employees, it has to honor Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) – this also means your PFL benefits must be coordinated and used concurrently with FMLA benefits.
9. Paid Family Leave provides more than just a monetary benefit – it provides job security similar to unpaid leave under FMLA, but regardless of the size of the employer.
   • When returning from PFL, you are entitled to return to your same or comparable position
   • If your employer declines to reinstate you when returning from PFL, you have the right to report this to NY State
10. If you have health insurance through your employer, it’s continued at your usual coverage level and contribution amount as if you weren’t on leave.

Source: http://pfl.shelterpoint.com/for-employees

For more information on New York PFL and how GTM can help employers stay compliant, contact us at (518) 373-4111.