Our company adopted a handbook last year that states we are eligible for "up to 8 weeks paid Family Leave". This was still in effect when I first learned I was pregnant. At the same time, another girl at the office found out she was pregnant also! We are a really small company, 4 full time employees.

We told our boss and the president of our board of directors that we were pregnant when we were around 8 weeks pregnant. Four weeks later, the president of the board came to us and said that the policy in the handbook was never approved by the board even though all of us employed here were under the impression that it was, including our boss.

They now want to change the policy to partial or full un-paid time off. However they have still not come to any decission on what the new policy should be and we are now in our 16th weeks! The longer they hold out making this new policy the harder it will be for us to try to figure out what we are going to do financially should they decide to do unpaid leave.

My question is: Can they do this? We had the handbook previous to our becoming pregnant and everyone was under the assumption as it was approved as we all signed and agreed to it ( the employees). Now the board is saying they never saw it?

Do we have any options?

Thanks.

Not unless your handbook is one of the extremely rare ones that constitutes a contract., No law requires them to provide paid medical, maternity or family leave.

You can show the handbook to a local attorney, but don't hold your breath.

I don't think I'd let that one go. It looks to me that they are changing the policy directly because of the pregnancy. I would contact the eeoc and place your situation there, as well as speaking with an attorney. There have been courts who hold an employer to handbooks as agreements. This may be one of those cases. Be sure to speak with an attorney who specializes in this, and only works on behalf of employees. You can also try Equal Rights Advocates. They have a web site and a hot-line for free legal advice. I think I would trust their opinion on this.