Pay and PDL

PDL is unpaid leave. However, if you offer paid temporary disability leaves for similarly situated employees, you should offer the same to employees on PDL.

State Disability Insurance (SDI) and PDL

An employee on PDL may be eligible for SDI benefits during the time the employee is disabled by pregnancy. SDI benefits are limited to the time the employee is actually disabled.

SDI is not available during child bonding leave.

The employee must apply to the Employment Development Department (EDD) for SDI benefits. The employee's health care provider will certify the period of disability to support the application for SDI benefits. For more information, see State Disability Insurance and Paid Family Leave.

Workers’ Compensation and PDL

Though it is possible that a pregnant employee could suffer a work-related illness or injury that puts the employee’s health or that of the unborn child in jeopardy, the employee would not receive payments from SDI and workers’ compensation concurrently.

• The employee’s health care provider determines if the employee is disabled by pregnancy, childbirth or a related medical condition, in which case the employee might be eligible for SDI payments.
• Your workers’ compensation physician determines whether the employee suffered a work-related illness or injury, in which case the employee is eligible for workers’ compensation payments.

Paid Family Leave (PFL) and PDL

An employee who takes child bonding leave can apply for PFL benefits. An employee is not eligible for PFL benefits while they are disabled by pregnancy and on PDL (they are eligible for SDI during PDL). However, if the employee takes child bonding leave after PDL, they can apply for PFL benefits.

PFL is not a leave of absence; it is a wage replacement program. An employee must have the right to take bonding leave, either under the CFRA, the FMLA or a company policy; if they have the right to take leave, then they can apply for PFL benefits during that leave. If an employee isn't eligible for such leave, and eligible only for PDL, the employee wouldn't be entitled to additional time off for child bonding.

For more information, see State Disability Insurance and Paid Family Leave. For more information on child bonding leave, see Family and Medical Leave.

Sick Leave and PDL

Employees may choose to use accrued sick leave during the otherwise unpaid portion of PDL. You can also permit the use of sick leave benefits to supplement SDI benefits. In other words, you can integrate and coordinate the sick leave benefit with SDI as long as the employee does not receive more than 100 percent of the employee’s wages. For more information, see State Disability Insurance and Paid Family Leave.

Vacation, Paid Time Off (PTO) and PDL

You cannot require an employee to use vacation or other accrued personal paid time off (PTO) while on PDL. However, an employee can choose to use vacation or PTO during PDL.

Seniority and PDL

During PDL, the employee is entitled to accrual of seniority to the same extent and under the same conditions as would apply to any other unpaid leave not related to pregnancy. If your policy or state or federal law allow seniority to accrue when employees take paid or unpaid leave, then seniority accrues during any part of a paid and/or unpaid PDL, consistent with your policy.

You cannot consider PDL a break in service. An employee must return from PDL with at least as much seniority (for purposes of layoff, recall, promotion, job assignment and seniority-related benefits, such as vacation) as the employee had when the employee began the leave.

Benefits and PDL

When an employee takes PDL, an employer who provides health insurance under a group health plan (medical, dental, vision) must continue to maintain an eligible employee's coverage under the plan as if the employee had not taken PDL.1

You must continue benefits for the duration of an employee's PDL, up to a maximum of four months in a 12-month period per pregnancy, beginning the date the leave begins.

If the employer is a state agency, the collective bargaining agreement governs the continuation of health care under the employer’s group health plan.

The obligation to continue benefits during PDL is separate from the obligation to continue benefits during leave under the CFRA and FMLA. For more information, see Family and Medical Leave.

You must provide coverage at the same level and under the same conditions that coverage would have been provided had the employee not taken PDL. If the employee contributed to the group plan premium before taking PDL, the employee must continue to pay the employee’s portion while on leave.

However, if you provide greater benefits for other temporary disability leaves, you must provide them for pregnancy leave to the same extent and for the same length of time.

At the time the leave begins, provide the employee with written notice as to which benefits you provide, and, if applicable, the amount the employee must pay for those benefits and how and when the employee must make those payments. If the employee normally pays a portion of the insurance premium, there are two options for premium payment during the leave:

• If the employee is receiving sick leave, vacation, PTO or other forms of pay while out on leave, you may deduct the employee’s portion of the premium, in the amount normally deducted per pay period, from any paychecks the employee receives during the leave.
• For any portion of the leave during which the employee is not receiving any wages, the employee should pay the employee’s share of the premium to you by cash or check.

There is no provision in the PDL regulations allowing an employer to discontinue insurance benefits during a PDL leave, even if the employee fails to pay the employee’s share of the premium while on leave.

• You must continue benefits for the duration of an employee's PDL.

Recovering Premiums

You can recover from an employee the premiums that you paid while the employee was on PDL if both of the following conditions are met:2

• The employee fails to return from PDL after the designated leave period expires; and
• The employee’s failure to return from PDL is not for any of the following reasons:
• The employee is taking leave under the CFRA, unless the employee chooses not to return to work following the CFRA leave.
• The continuation, recurrence or onset of a health condition entitles the employee to PDL, unless the employee chooses not to return to work following the leave.
• Non-pregnancy related medical conditions require further leave, unless the employee chooses not to return to work following the leave.
• Any circumstances beyond the control of the employee, including, but not limited to, circumstances where the employer is responsible for the employee's failure to return (e.g. the employee is not returned to the employee's same position), or when the employee must care for the employee or a family member (e.g. the employee gives birth to a child with a serious health condition).

Eligibility for Other Benefits

An employee on PDL is entitled to participate in the following benefits, to the same extent and under the same conditions as would apply to any other unpaid disability leave granted by the employer for any reason other than a pregnancy disability:

• Employee benefit plans, including life, short-term and long-term disability or accident insurance;
• Pension and retirement plans;
• Stock options; and
• Supplemental unemployment benefit plans.

Benefits After an Employee Returns from PDL

Benefits must be resumed upon the employee’s reinstatement in the same manner and at the same levels as provided when the leave began, without any new qualification period, physical exam, etc.

1. Gov’t. Code sec. 12945