State and local leave laws are changing weekly and sometimes even daily! For the second time this month, Maine is adjusting its leave laws.  Employers in Maine will soon be required to provide veterans with time away from work to attend scheduled appointments at Department of Veterans Affairs medical facilities. If paid leave is available to the veteran, he or she must be permitted to use paid leave for the absence. If a veteran has no available paid leave, then the employer must allow the veteran to take unpaid leave.  Veterans are required to give their employer notice of the appointment “as soon as reasonably possible.” The law goes into effect on September 19, 2019.

While this new law does not mandate that employers provide paid leave, Maine recently enacted a paid leave law that, as of January 2021, will require most private employers to provide employees with up to 40 hours of paid leave annually that the employee can use for any reason.  Additional information about Maine’s Act Authorizing Earned Employee Leave is available in our June 13, 2019 Legal Update.

For guidance on leave management issues, please contact a Jackson Lewis attorney. Register here if you would like to receive information about our workthruIT® Leave & Accommodation Suite. The Leave & Accommodation Suite provides subscribers an expanding array of tools to manage leave and accommodation issues, including electronic access to a state and local leave law database that is developed and updated continually by our Disability, Leave & Health Management attorneys.

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Photo of Tara K. Burke Tara K. Burke

Tara K. Burke is the knowledge management (“KM”) attorney for Jackson Lewis P.C.’s Disability, Leave & Health Management practice group, and is based in the Cincinnati, Ohio, office of Jackson Lewis P.C. She works with employers to build positive and inclusive workplaces and…

Tara K. Burke is the knowledge management (“KM”) attorney for Jackson Lewis P.C.’s Disability, Leave & Health Management practice group, and is based in the Cincinnati, Ohio, office of Jackson Lewis P.C. She works with employers to build positive and inclusive workplaces and reduce legal risk through policy development, training, and employment law counseling.

Tara provides practical and legal advice to clients on employment law issues including harassment and discrimination prevention, diversity and inclusion, hiring and interviewing, internal investigations, disability accommodation and leave management, reductions in force, individual separations and employee relations issues. Tara works with clients, including multi-state employers, to identify the trends in workplace law and stay in compliance with the rapidly changing state-by-state legal landscape. Tara helps clients of all sizes and in all industries, create, revise and implement workplace policies and procedures including employee handbooks. She also routinely conducts workplace training for leadership, human resources, managers and employees on numerous topics including strong management practices that reduce legal risk and build effective teams, preventing sexual harassment by supporting respectful and positive workplaces, achieving winning results through diversity and inclusion, conducting investigations, and employee accommodations and leaves of absence.

Tara has defended employers in employment-related litigation and administrative proceedings.

In addition to working with for-profit clients, Tara also works with non-profit clients, including small non-profits, to provide employment law expertise to non-profit organizations supporting our communities across the country.