Employee experiences with family and medical leave: A case study

Abstract

This article examines employee experiences with family and medical leave policies at an urban public transportation union work site in the United States. The case study focuses on the leave experiences among a sample population of 91 primarily African-American women transit workers, including reasons for taking or not taking leaves, decisions regarding how much leave time to take, and work impacts experienced after returning from leaves. The case study found that all respondents with new babies or ill children took leaves, as did 78% of those with illnesses and 39% of those with ill family members. Among those eligible to take leaves, the most frequent reason for not doing so was the lack of wage replacement. Knowledge of leave policies was minimal and not associated with the likelihood of leave-taking. These findings are discussed in terms of their workplace and community implications, including the need to expand the length and types of family leave coverage, the need for government-mandated paid leave, approaches for increasing employee knowledge of leave rights, and the need for continued research into leave experiences of minority populations.