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[bud04]

New _bus _prof that is sooooo against the law. Someone should call the Department of Labor on them. You have a right to the same kind of schedule that you had before you take FMLA when you return after it. The heavier loads that these people have been given may be seen as retaliation for taking FMLA which is against the law. Your college must follow the federal law though as harry said, they can offer better policies.   

[temporaryname]

New _bus _prof that is sooooo against the law. Someone should call the Department of Labor on them. You have a right to the same kind of schedule that you had before you take FMLA when you return after it. The heavier loads that these people have been given may be seen as retaliation for taking FMLA which is against the law. Your college must follow the federal law though as harry said, they can offer better policies.   

And complaining about teaching loads would never count as non-collegial come tenure time, of course, so it's risk-free!

[bud04]

d_f_b I understand your concern about tenure. But the investigation is done by the Department of Labor and any type of retaliation for a complaint is against the federal law. No university or college is exempt from these federal laws and most know it. If they don't, their lawyers do.   

[harry]

I am told that my current institution still lacks any official provision for maternity leave: not even lip service. New mothers have to use sick leave instead. Around here, paternity leave amounts to a pipe dream (but then, the same seems to be true of COLA raises).

I cannot vouch for the accuracy of this report, but that's the word on the street in TT-ville.

I'm curious--does that mean that there's no mention of FMLA (which is always unpaid, unless one uses vacation or sick leave to fill in the "lost" time), or that there's no mention of any sort of separate maternity policy or benefit?

The former I'd find hard to believe, while I'd find the latter not surprising at all. Same thing goes if it's paternity leave, though I'd actually be actively surprised if there were provisions for paternity leave going beyond FMLA.

[temporaryname]

d_f_b I understand your concern about tenure. But the investigation is done by the Department of Labor and any type of retaliation for a complaint is against the federal law. No university or college is exempt from these federal laws and most know it. If they don't, their lawyers do.   

The connection would, though, be hard to prove, except in the most egregious cases.

[bud04]

True d_f_b but the colleges/universities don't want a visit from the Department of Labor for any reason because then they will have a record of a complaint on file so it is important for people to stand up for their rights. You just call the department within the three year time period and make a complaint. Then they will take it from there. And if someones schedule is much different from before they went on FMLA, it doesn't look good.     

[kedves]

Stand up for your rights pre-tenure?  Bud04, are you an academic?

Here is a New York Times article from 2000 about the fear of taking paternity leave.  Although it's not about academia specifically, it probably applies to most job settings, especially those in which competition and perception are important.  Colleges and universities, for all their talk, are not very different from private firms in many ways.  However, individual institutions vary considerably.  I don't want to discourage anyone from finding out what gives at his particular place.

[bud04]

Yep. Full professor. I know it is hard but at least this is one fight where the federal law is on your side and offers protection.

I'm a fighter and have always stood up (and gotten knocked down too!) for my rights. But I am also in a field that has had a shortage for years of Ph.D.s so that helps.