Mass-Peculiarities: An Employers Guide to Wage & Hour Law in the Bay State 2022 Edition

© 2022 Seyfarth Shaw LLP Massachusetts Wage & Hour Peculiarities, 2022 ed. | 29 employees to inform their employer as soon as practicable. 135 Employers should notify employees of their ability to request leave under the SNLA by posting or issuing a memorandum to all employees. 136 Employers may require that requests for SNLA leave be supported by a certification. 137 The SNLA authorizes the Massachusetts Attorney General to initiate a complaint or criminal action against an employer that violates the Act. 138 Any employer convicted of a criminal violation of the Act will be subject to a fine of $500.00 or less. 139 In addition, any aggrieved employee may institute a civil action against his or her employer for monetary damages or injunctive relief. Injunctive relief may include the court requiring the employer to provide the requested leave or any other action the court deems appropriate to remedy the violation of the SNLA. If the employee prevails, he or she will be entitled to treble damages, costs of the litigation, and reasonable attorneys’ fees. 140 E. Massachusetts Parental Leave Act The Massachusetts Parental Leave Act (MPLA) entitles an employee to take unpaid parental leave for the birth, adoption, or placement of a child per a court order of a child under the age of eighteen (or a mentally or physically disabled person under the age of twenty-three). 141 The statute allows up to eight weeks of leave per child. Thus, an employee who has twins may take a total of sixteen weeks of leave. In addition, if an employer employs two employees who request leave for the birth, adoption, or placement of the same child, the employer is obligated to provide them with a total of eight weeks of leave between the two of them. The MPLA covers employers with six or more employees. Employees are eligible if they have been employed by the same employer for at least three consecutive months as a full-time employee. 142 FMLA leave may run concurrently with MPLA leave, but only if the FMLA leave is utilized for a reason that is protected under the MPLA (i.e., the birth or placement of a child). 143 135 M.G.L. ch. 149, § 52D(d). 136 Massachuset t s At torney General Advisory 98/1. 137 M.G.L. ch. 149, § 52D(e). The At torney General has prepared a model cert ificat ion form, which is included in Massachuset t s At torney General Advisory 98/1. 138 M.G.L. ch. 149, § 150. 139 M.G.L. ch. 149, § 180. 140 M.G.L. ch. 149, § 150. 141 M.G.L. ch. 149, § 105D. Employers may choose to provide leave longer than eight weeks. Under the MPLA, employees who take leave longer than eight weeks automat ically retain the same service credit and job restorat ion protections that they had during the first eight weeks of their leave, unless the employer informs the employee in writ ing, before the start of the parental leave and before the start of an extension, that taking longer than eight weeks of leave will result in a loss of these job protect ions. Id. 142 M.G.L. ch. 149, § 105D(b). 143 29 C.F.R. § 825.701(a).