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Maine Leaving Wage Law Not Leaving

June 10th, 2007 Posted by Mark

Unlike in New York, where the future of the family and medical leave law is uncertain, in Maine, the law seems to be on the verge of being extended. The reason that the Maine law makers are looking to change their family and medical leave laws is to make it possible for workers to access them to care for a domestic partner should he or she become ill and need care.

Maine’s current version of the law allows workers to take off time from work in order to care for a sick loved one such as a spouse, a child or a parent if have a serious enough medical condition to warrant it. But the bill that was working its way through the Maine legislature last week would allow that bill to include those so called domestic partners.

This would mean folks in those situations could take advantage of the Maine Family Medical Leave law and its 10 weeks off per year to care for family members, to care for oneself if they are sick themselves. The way it works in Maine is that workers will be able to choose if they want to take this family and medical leave time as paid or unpaid.

The issue does not necessarily have to deal just with same sex couples. Heterosexual couples can also be considered domestic partners in Maine if they are registered as such. The term just means that the two people live together in a serious committed relationship but are not married. Under the Maine law, these folks would also be able to stay home from work to care for their domestic partner too. Will this mean that Maine employers will need a new state family and medical leave act poster, or FMLA poster? I will need to look into it and get back to you on that one.