Nebraska Leave Laws and Employer Requirements

Nebraska Sick Leave Laws

Nebraska does not have a mandatory paid sick leave law that requires employers to offer employees protected sick leave. However, if the employer has promised sick leave, paid or unpaid, then they may be under a legal obligation to provide sick leave to their employees.

Nebraska does have several laws that govern vacation pay if employers choose to offer paid time off. First, under Nebraska law, employers can require employees to meet certain guidelines before they earn vacation leave.

Additionally, once employees have earned vacation leave, the employer cannot withhold leave for any condition, including termination of employment. Employers can restrict how many days of paid time off employees can earn in a year. They can also require that employees “use it or lose it” by a certain date.

Lastly, Nebraska does not require any special or premium pay for employees that work during state or federal holidays.

Even though Nebraska doesn’t require that employers provide employees with paid or unpaid sick days, there are circumstances where Nebraska employers would be required to allow employees time off.

The federal Family Medical Leave Act provides up to 12 weeks of protected leave for qualified employees. Some of the protected purposes that are included in FMLA would also typically be used for paid sick leave.

Qualified Employees under FMLA

Employees that qualify for FMLA leave must be employed by a qualified employer. They also must have worked at least 12 months for that employer in the previous 7 years. The time doesn’t have to be concurrent employment.

Additionally, in the 12 months previous to the leave, the employee must have worked at least 1,250 hours.

A qualified employer is any employer with at least 50 employees in a 75 mile radius.

Using FMLA for Sick Leave

FMLA provides protected leave for employees to take sick leave in several situations. First, if the employee has a serious health condition which includes a chronic health condition, pregnancy, or permanent health care conditions.  

Serious health conditions include anytime that the employee has an illness, injury or other health condition, including a mental one, that requires an overnight stay in a hospital or care facility.

Even if the employee hasn’t had an overnight stay, a serious health condition can also include any period of 3 days or more where the employee cannot perform their regular work duties and which requires ongoing care by a health care provider.

Another common occurrence is when employees have other chronic health care conditions that cause incapacity to perform work duties. These chronic conditions include asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, and even chronic anxiety.

Many employers don’t realize that pregnancy health conditions, including morning sickness are also covered under FMLA. Any type or length of incapacity that is caused by pregnancy is also covered. This means that even when an employee must come into work 2 hours late regularly due to morning sickness from their pregnancy, that the employee is covered under FMLA leave for that time.

Lastly, Long term health conditions also provide protected leave for employees. This is true even if it’s a partial day to either treat those conditions, like in the case of chemotherapy physical therapy, dialysis. If the condition isn’t treatable, then the employee can still take time related to the illness. This would be the case for conditions such as alzheimer’s, stroke, and terminal diseases.

Other Types of Leave in Nebraska

Nebraska law provides both job and wage protection for employees who leave a work shift to serve on a jury or respond to a jury summons. The court pays employees $35 a day for jury duty. Employers must pay employees the full amount of the employees wages while they serve on a jury minus the $35 of pay the employee receives from the courts.

Plus, employees also have protected leave during that time.

Nebraska also provides 2 hours of leave for employees who want to vote. The employees must not have 2 hours of off-the-clock time to vote in order to qualify for voting leave. If the employee does not have 2 or more hours to vote when they are not scheduled to work, then their employer must provide 2 hours of leave for the employee to vote.

Let SwipeClock Help

Businesses who have employees in Nebraska and other surrounding states such as Colorado will have to track different leave laws, minimum wage laws, and other employment laws.  

Additionally, these businesses have to also comply with Federal Overtime Laws, the Family Medical Leave Act and any other national or local laws that are enacted. SwipeClock provides a comprehensive array of workforce management and time tracking tools that can help businesses to more easily stay in compliance with local and national laws.

Records are effortlessly kept for years and accrual is automatically tracked and reported to employees according to the state and city laws. Additionally, with geo-timekeeping clocks, businesses can effortlessly track time worked in specific cities to ensure compliance.

Resources

Nebraska Jury Duty Leave

Nebraska Employer Vacation Leave Requirements

Written by Annemaria Duran. Last updated on October 2, 2017