© 2025 Seyfarth Shaw LLP Massachusetts Wage & Hour Peculiarities, 2025 ed. | 153 a reason that is protected under the MPLA (i.e., the birth or placement of a child).922 MPFMLA is discussed in more detail in Section XI.C, above. On May 17, 2023, the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD), the agency which enforces the MPLA, issued updated guidelines regarding the statute, including its interaction with MPFMLA.923 The guidelines specifically address circumstances under which the MPLA applies and the MPFMLA does not, and circumstances where the MPLA provides additional weeks of job-protected leave after an employee has exhausted their MPFMLA entitlement.924 The updated guidance also clarified that employees may take MPLA within one year from the date of the child’s birth or adoption.925 The statute states that employees may take MPLA “for the purpose of giving birth” or “for the placement of a child for adoption with the employee.” Previously, this had been interpreted to require employees to take time at or near the time of birth or adoption. The updated guidelines offer a different interpretation and state that leave “must be taken within a reasonable time frame consistent with the purpose of the act, which is to allow parents time off of work to care for and bond with children being welcomed into their family.”926 The guidelines state that the MCAD “will generally consider one year from the date of the child’s birth or adoption to be a reasonable time frame” in which to use MPLA. The guidance also interprets the MPLA as permitting employees to take MPLA on an intermittent or reduced schedule basis. The guidelines acknowledge that taking intermittent or reduced schedule leave requires the employer’ agreement, but such agreement “shall not be unreasonably denied.”927 The MCAD’s interpretation of the MPLA is at odds with the FMLA and MPFMLA, which do not require employers to grant intermittent or reduced schedule leave to bond with a child.928 If an employer covers the cost of benefits to employees while on a non-MPLA leave of absence, the employer must provide the same benefits to employees on MPLA leave.929 Taking MPLA leave must not affect an employee’s entitlement to bonuses (or other pay and benefits enumerated in the statute), but “when applicable” the amount of time spent on leave need not be included in 922 29 C.F.R. § 825.701(a). 923 Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, Guidelines on the Massachusetts Parental Leave Act, May 17, 2023, https://www.mass.gov/doc/mcad-guidelines-on-parental-leave/download (last visited Mar. 5, 2025). 924 Id. 925 Id. at 8. 926 Id. 927 Id. 928 See 29 CFR § 825.202; 458 CMR 2.13; https://www.mass.gov/doc/mcad-guidelines-on-parental-leave/download (last visited Mar. 6, 2025) (“MPLA Guidelines”). 929 MPLA Guidelines, at 12.
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