Sick Leave Benefits; Care of Relatives Leave - Minn. Stat. § 181.9413

This is a statute allowing an employee to use paid leave when missing work for a qualified condition. CV customers may determine whether or not they will utilize this absence specification.

Covered Employers: Employers of 21 or more Employees located at least at one worksite and includes a corporation, partnership, association, nonprofit organization, group of persons, state, county, town, city, school district, or other governmental subdivision. The worksite is not required to be in Minnesota.

Employee Eligibility: Employees who have worked for an Employer for at least 12 consecutive months immediately preceding the request and for an average number of hours equal to one-half the full-time equivalent position in the Employee's job classification as defined by the employer's personnel policies or practices or pursuant to the provisions of a collective bargaining agreement, during the 12-month period immediately preceding the leave. Employees include all individuals employed at any site owned or operated by the employer but does not include an independent contractor.

Entitlement: An employee may use personal sick leave benefits provided by the employer for absences due to an illness of or injury to the employee's relatives on the same terms the employee is able to use sick leave benefits for the employee's own illness or injury or for safety leave for the purpose of providing or receiving assistance because of sexual assault, domestic abuse, or stalking. This section applies only to personal sick leave benefits payable to the employee from the employer's general assets.

The employee may also use sick leave as allowed under this section for safety leave, whether or not the employee's employer allows use of sick leave for that purpose for such reasonable periods of time as may be necessary. Safety leave may be used for assistance to the employee or assistance to the relatives described in paragraph (a). For the purpose of this section, "safety leave" is leave for the purpose of providing or receiving assistance because of sexual assault, domestic abuse, or harassment or stalking.

The employer may limit the amount of sick or safety leave use to no less than 160 hours of personal sick leave in any 12-month period. However, this limitation does not apply to absences connected to a child's illness or injury when the child is under age 18 or under age 20 but is still attending secondary school.

The law defines "relative" as a child, adult child, spouse, sibling, parent, mother-in-law, father-in-law, grandchild, grandparent, or stepparent. "Child" includes a biological, adopted, step, or foster child, and "grandchild" includes a biological, adopted, step, or foster grandchild.

Reinstatement: An employee returning from a leave under section 181.9412 or 181.9413 is entitled to return to employment in the employee's former position, unless the employee would have been laid off due to a bona fide and good faith layoff program. The employer must provide the employee the same rate of pay, plus any automatic pay adjustments that occurred during the leave. An employer and employee can agree to permit the employee to work part-time during his or her leave without forfeiting reinstatement rights.

Absence Specifications