Hello. We own a small office at the moment we only have 1 employee. The employee informed us yesterday that she is pregnant and will need to be taking a lot of time off for doctor's appointments, etc. She also is very unhappy about the pregnancy and her attitude can directly affect our business. As she is our only employee this poses a serious hardship for how our business runs. One more thing, she has only been with us for about 3 months.

My questions are as a small business (1 employee) what are our requirements in regards to pda, fmla, and std laws? I have a feeling that we are exempt from those being that we don't have x (whatever x is) number of employees. Any help would be appreciated and certainly ease our minds.

There are no STD laws in Arkansas, (or in most states - only five states have legally mandated disability plans and Arkansas is not one of them). If you have an STD policy, you must honor the terms in it (regardless of how many employees you have), but you are not obligated to have one (also regardless of how many employees you have).

With only one employee, you are exempt from FMLA, the ADA and the PDA which require 50 (FMLA) and 15 (the ADA and the PDA) employees respectively. This is at the Federal level. Arkansas discrimination laws go into effect at 9 employees, but with only one employee you are exempt there too.

The law has to balance the rights of employees with the rights of employers, and recognizes the difficulties a small employer has when an employee is absent for an extended period.

Thank you very much for your answer. It has made me feel a lot better knowing that we do have options and can not be sued for taking these options if they are necessary.

Have a wonderful day and thank you again.