This bill makes the following changes to the paid family and medical leave benefits program.
1. It requires an employee to be employed with an employer for 120 days before being eligible to take leave.
2. It clarifies that the definition of "self-employed individual" applies only to employers with less than 15 employees.
3. It allows employers to have intermittent leave schedules reviewed by the program administrator.
4. It applies the same delay of implementation to private employers with collective bargaining agreements as currently applies to public employers.
5. It prohibits the taking of paid leave unless the employee simultaneously takes any available unpaid leave.
6. It reduces the retroactive application deadline from 90 days to 30 days.
7. It requires the paid family and medical leave benefits program administrator to give employers 5 days' notice of leave being approved for an employee.
8. It requires the Department of Labor to post on its publicly accessible website no later than February 1st of each year the dates by which contribution reports and premiums must be remitted.
9. It relieves employers with collective bargaining agreements of the obligation to bargain over the employee's share of the premium.
10. It allows employers to correct mistakes in the employee share of taxes for up to months.
11. It establishes a 52-week formula for calculating the 15-employee threshold.
12. It changes the applications of penalties against employers from mandatory to discretionary.
13. It requires self-employed individuals who elect coverage to pay 1/4 of a year's worth of premiums upon first applying for coverage.
14. It places limits on the fees charged for private plan substitutions.
15. It requires the Department of Labor to post on its publicly accessible website the appropriate tax forms, based on guidance from the United States Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Administrative and Financial Services, Maine Revenue Services, that employers with approved private plans must provide to employees taking leave.
16. It clarifies that the provision that provides that an employee who takes leave is entitled to be restored to the employee's former position does not apply to an employee who is taking retroactive paid leave and who did not notify the employer for more than 5 days of the employee's absence.
17. It changes rules from routine technical to major substantive.
18. It clarifies that at no time may an employee receive benefits of over 100% of the employee's wages.
19. It establishes that employee count is determined using an existing method to calculate unemployment insurance liability.

Statutes affected:
Bill Text LD 1333, HP 868: 26.850