North Dakota State Employee Family Leave Act
- An employee in the state of North Dakota can use a maximum of 12 unpaid weeks for the adoption, birth or foster care of a child, or for the care of a child, parent or spouse with a serious health condition. To qualify for family leave, state employees must have worked for the state for a minimum of 12 months and accumulated a minimum of 1,250 employee work hours for the previous 12-month period. An employee can take family leave via a reduced schedule of work, consecutive work days or intermittently. Part-time employees are eligible for family leave on a prorated basis.
- A state employee who needs to take family leave must provide the state agency with at least 30 days advance notice of the intended leave. In the event that 30 days notice cannot be given due to unforeseen events, the employee must give the state agency notice as soon as reasonably possible. An employee can give notice to his supervisor in person, by telephone, verbally or in writing. In the event that two state employees who are spouses apply for family leave, the total requested leave cannot exceed 12 weeks.
- An employee must take family leave within 12 months of an adoption, birth or foster care. While an employee is on family leave, the state agency must continue to provide an employee with the equivalent level and coverage of health benefits as if the employee were not on leave. The state can require an employee to provide medical certification that verifies the existence of a serious health condition, the start date and expected duration or medical factors of the condition.
- The spouse, daughter, parent, son or next of kin of military personnel can take a maximum of 26 weeks of unpaid leave from their positions to provide care for a wounded veteran. In addition, employees are entitled to receive up to 12 weeks of family or medical leave to provide care to the children, parents or spouses of military reservists, soldiers or members of the National Guard who have a qualifying emergency.
- Upon the completion of family leave, the state agency must return an employee to the position that the employee had prior to taking family leave, or if this position is no longer available, an equivalent position that has the same level of benefits and compensation. If the employee position would have been lost due to layoff during the leave period, the provision of reinstatement is not applicable.