The state of Ohio does not have a general law regarding family and medical leave, but does provide leave for
state employees under the following sections of the Ohio Revised Code Annotated.
124.139. Bone marrow and organ donation leave.
(A) A full-time state employee shall receive up to two hundred forty hours of leave with pay during each calendar
year to use during those hours when the employee is absent from work because of the employee's donation of any
portion of an adult liver or because of the employee's donation of an adult kidney.
(B) A full-time state employee shall receive up to fifty-six hours of leave with pay during each calendar year
to use during those hours when the employee is absent from work because of the employee's donation of adult bone
marrow.
(C) An appointing authority shall compensate a full-time state employee who uses leave granted under division (A)
or (B) of this section at the employee's regular rate of pay for those regular work hours during which the employee
is absent from work.
(D)
(1) The director of administrative services, under section 124.04 of the Revised Code, shall provide information
about this section to full-time employees who are paid directly by warrant of the auditor of state.
(2) The appointing authority of full-time employees who are not paid directly by warrant of the auditor of state
shall periodically provide information about this section to those employees.
12 4.38 Sick leave.
Each of the following shall be entitled for each completed eighty hours of service to sick leave of four and
six-tenths hours with pay:
(A) Employees in the various offices of the county, municipal, and civil service township service, other than
superintendents and management employees, as defined in section 5126.20 of the Revised Code, of county boards of
mental retardation and developmental disabilities;
(B) Employees of any state college or university;
(C) Employees of any board of education for whom sick leave is not provided by section 3319.141 [3319.14.1] of
the Revised Code.
Employees may use sick leave, upon approval of the responsible administrative officer of the employing unit,
for absence due to personal illness, pregnancy, injury, exposure to contagious disease that could be communicated
to other employees, and illness, injury, or death in the employee's immediate family. Unused sick leave shall be
cumulative without limit. When sick leave is used, it shall be deducted from the employee's credit on the basis
of one hour for every one hour of absence from previously scheduled work.
The previously accumulated sick leave of an employee who has been separated from the public service shall be placed
to the employee's credit upon the employee's re-employment in the public service, provided that such re-employment
takes place within ten years of the date on which the employee was last terminated from public service. An employee
who transfers from one public agency to another shall be credited with the unused balance of the employee's accumulated
sick leave up to the maximum of the sick leave accumulation permitted in the public agency to which the employee
transfers.
The appointing authorities of the various offices of the county service may permit all or any part of a person's
accrued but unused sick leave acquired during service with any regional council of government established in accordance
with Chapter 167. of the Revised Code to be credited to the employee upon a transfer as if the employee were transferring
from one public agency to another under this section.
The appointing authority of each employing unit shall require an employee to furnish a satisfactory written, signed
statement to justify the use of sick leave. If medical attention is required, a certificate stating the nature
of the illness from a licensed physician shall be required to justify the use of sick leave. Falsification of either
a written, signed statement or a physician's certificate shall be grounds for disciplinary action, including dismissal.
This section does not interfere with existing unused sick leave credit in any agency of government where attendance
records are maintained and credit has been given employees for unused sick leave.
Notwithstanding this section or any other section of the Revised Code, any appointing authority of a county office,
department, commission, board, or body may, upon notification to the board of county commissioners, establish alternative
schedules of sick leave for employees of the appointing authority for whom the state employment relations board
has not established an appropriate bargaining unit pursuant to section 4117.06 of the Revised Code, provided that
the alternative schedules are not inconsistent with the provisions of a collective bargaining agreement covering
other employees of that appointing authority.
124.136 Parental leave of absence and benefits for certain employees.
(A)
(1) Each permanent full-time and permanent part-time employee paid in accordance with section 124.152 [124.15.2]
of the Revised Code and each employee listed in division (B)(2) or (4) of section 124.14 of the Revised Code who
works thirty or more hours per week, and who meets the requirement of division (A)(2) of this section is eligible,
upon the birth or adoption of a child, for a parental leave of absence and parental leave benefits under this section.
Parental leave of absence shall begin on the day of the birth of a child or on the day on which custody of a child
is taken for adoption placement by the prospective parents.
(2) To be eligible for leave and benefits under this section, an employee must be the biological parent of a newly
born child or the legal guardian of and reside in the same household as a newly adopted child. Employees may elect
to receive two thousand dollars for adoption expenses in lieu of receiving the paid leave benefit provided under
this section. Such payment may be requested upon placement of the child in the employee's home. If the child is
already residing in the home, payment may be requested at the time the adoption is approved.
(3) The average number of regular hours worked, which shall include all hours of holiday pay and other types of
paid leave, during the three-month period immediately preceding the day parental leave of absence begins shall
be used to determine eligibility and benefits under this section for part-time employees, but such benefits shall
not exceed forty hours per week. If an employee has not worked for a three-month period, the number of hours for
which the employee has been scheduled to work per week during the employee's period of employment shall be used
to determine eligibility and benefits under this section.
(B) Parental leave granted under this section shall not exceed six continuous weeks, which shall include four
weeks or one hundred sixty hours of paid leave for permanent full-time employees and a prorated number of hours
of paid leave for permanent part-time employees. All employees granted parental leave shall serve a waiting period
of fourteen days that begins on the day parental leave begins and during which they shall not receive paid leave
under this section. Employees may choose to work during the waiting period. During the remaining four weeks of
the leave period, employees shall receive paid leave equal to seventy per cent of their base rate of pay. All of
the following apply to employees granted parental leave:
(1) They remain eligible to receive all employer-paid benefits and continue to accrue all other forms of paid
leave as if they were in active pay status.
(2) They are ineligible to receive overtime pay, and no portion of their parental leave shall be included in calculating
their overtime pay.
(3) They are ineligible to receive holiday pay. A holiday occurring during the leave period shall be counted as
one day of parental leave and be paid as such.
(C) Employees receiving parental leave may utilize available sick leave, personal leave, vacation leave, or
compensatory time balances in order to be paid during the fourteen-day waiting period and to supplement the seventy
per cent of their base rate of pay received during the remaining part of their parental leave period, in an amount
sufficient to give them up to one hundred per cent of their pay for time on parental leave.
Use of parental leave does not affect an employee's eligibility for other forms of paid leave granted under this
chapter and does not prohibit an employee from taking leave under the "Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993,"
107 Stat. 6, 29 U.S.C.A. 2601, except that parental leave shall be included in any leave time provided under that
act.
(D) Employees receiving disability leave benefits under section 124.385 [124.38.5] of the Revised Code prior to
becoming eligible for parental leave shall continue to receive disability leave benefits for the duration of their
disabling condition or as otherwise provided under the disability leave benefits program. If an employee is receiving
disability leave benefits because of pregnancy and these benefits expire prior to the expiration date of any benefits
the employee would have been entitled to receive under this section, the employee shall receive parental leave
for such additional time without being required to serve an additional waiting period.