Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Was reviewing this forum, can someone point me to the DC specific FMLA that says they cannot force you to use PTO?

I hope this is true. It's terrible to force people to use all their PTO during maternity leave and not allow them to take additional paid or unpaid time off once they come back to work for sick days and normal vacations. I was in that boat after coming back from my first maternity leave and every day that daycare was unavailable but work was open (Columbus Day, the day after Thanksgiving, days when my kid was sick, etc.) was a stressful juggling act. Not to mention that I had to put off my own healthcare needs because I had no sick/vacation days to go to the doctor.

http://www.dcregs.dc.gov/Notice/Download.aspx?VersionID=3687472

The act states the employee may "wish" to use their vacation/sick/PTO.

Call DOES tomorrow and they will point you to the best citation.

Posed the question to this forum: http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/105/20899.page
Seems like the rules apply to where a company is based, not where a person physically works.

Anonymous wrote:Was reviewing this forum, can someone point me to the DC specific FMLA that says they cannot force you to use PTO?

I hope this is true. It's terrible to force people to use all their PTO during maternity leave and not allow them to take additional paid or unpaid time off once they come back to work for sick days and normal vacations. I was in that boat after coming back from my first maternity leave and every day that daycare was unavailable but work was open (Columbus Day, the day after Thanksgiving, days when my kid was sick, etc.) was a stressful juggling act. Not to mention that I had to put off my own healthcare needs because I had no sick/vacation days to go to the doctor.

Was reviewing this forum, can someone point me to the DC specific FMLA that says they cannot force you to use PTO?

As a Canadian I find this appalling. Now married to an American and working at a US company in DC, I had 16 weeks of mat leave, fully paid, and I get 5 weeks of vacation, unlimited sick leave, plus all the statutory holidays, and I STILL thought the mat leave was unbelievably short (in Canada it's 12 months) and I found the first year very hard, even thought my husband took an entire month off after the baby was born.

My hats off to all the working mothers without these basic, basic benefits. How do we push for change collectively? This has got to stop.

FMLA, more like FML...