Employers Weigh Options At Intersection Of PTO And ADA
Employers must consider employee requests to preserve paid time off during disability leave, according to HR Dive. The Americans with Disabilities Act does not explicitly grant this right.
Original reporting · hrdive.com
Original: “3 questions to consider at the intersection of PTO and the ADA”
Read “3 questions to consider at the intersection of PTO and the ADA” at HR Dive →
How this was written. A Safety Kit wrote this article with a language model from HR Dive’s reporting (model: @cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast); it describes that reporting rather than adding to it. The original, linked above, is the full story.
Key points from HR Dive’s report
- Employers must consider employee requests to preserve paid time off during disability leave.
- The Americans with Disabilities Act does not explicitly grant the right to preserve paid time off.
- Employers should have a policy in place to address the intersection of paid time off and the ADA.
The intersection of paid time off and the Americans with Disabilities Act can be complex, HR Dive reported. An employer may grant leave as an accommodation, but the employee may not want to use accrued paid time off concurrently with that leave.
Guidance from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission suggests allowing employees with disabilities to exhaust accrued paid leave first and then provide unpaid leave. However, recent case law provides additional guidance, according to HR Dive.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held that the Rehabilitation Act does not give employees a right to unpaid leave. In this instance, the employer's offer of paid leave was a reasonable accommodation, and the employee declined to take it.
HR professionals should consider several questions when determining how leave interacts with available paid time off, including whether they have a policy in place. Most businesses require workers to run accrued leave concurrently with leave provided by the ADA or Family and Medical Leave Act.
Absent a policy, HR professionals may need to consider whether they have previously set a precedent in the workplace and allowed other workers to preserve paid time off. This can be a risk, as it may be difficult to remember how similar situations were handled in the past.
Finally, employers should check for any other relevant requirements, such as state leave law requirements, when analyzing leave. An increasing number of states have specific leave law requirements that employers must follow.
Questions and answers
Do employees have the right to preserve paid time off during disability leave?
The Americans with Disabilities Act does not explicitly grant this right, according to HR Dive.
What should employers consider when determining how leave interacts with available paid time off?
Employers should consider whether they have a policy in place, whether they have previously set a precedent, and whether there are any other relevant requirements.
Can employers require employees to exhaust accrued paid leave before providing unpaid leave?
Guidance from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission suggests allowing employees with disabilities to exhaust accrued paid leave first and then provide unpaid leave.
