The Maine Department of Labor (DOL) announced revised proposed rulemaking for the Maine Paid Family and Medical Leave Program. This comes on the heels of the first draft of proposed rules issued on May 20, 2024.

Public comment is open through Sept. 30, 2024. Comments can be submitted here.

Maine DOL’s rulemaking follows the Maine Legislature’s passage of the new law in 2023. Employees can begin receiving paid leave benefits effective on May 1, 2026, and employer contributions to the plan funding those benefits begins on Jan. 1, 2025.

The proposed rules provide greater detail as to how the DOL plans to implement and enforce the new program. Although they are substantially similar to the initial proposal, the revised rules contain a number of relatively minor changes and reorganizations and seven significant changes:

1. Bona fide volunteers will be excluded from the program’s coverage.
2. Federal employees will be excluded from coverage.
3. Previous drafts limited who is a covered employee based on a threshold wage amount earned in prior quarters. Under the latest draft, all Maine employees are covered employees. However, to receive benefits, employees must have earned wages in Maine at least six times the state average weekly wage during the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters immediately preceding the first day of an individual’s benefit year.
4. The previous draft placed the burden on employers to prove an undue hardship. The latest revision allows employers to “reasonably determine that scheduling of leave creates an undue hardship.”
5. If an employee seeks medical leave and the employee’s medical provider rejects the employer’s proposed schedule, then the employer requirement to prove undue hardship does not apply.
6. All covered employers will be required to use online registration.
7. Acceptance of applications for substitute private plans will begin on April 1, 2025. This allows employers to apply well before the prior opening date of Jan. 1, 2026.

As the DOL continues its process of finalizing rules to implement the program, please contact a Jackson Lewis attorney with any questions.