Effective August 24, 2021, Missouri becomes the latest state to mandate job-protected leave of absence when an employee or a family or household member is a victim of domestic or sexual violence. With this law, Missouri joins California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon and Washington as jurisdictions providing employment protection to victims of domestic and/or sexual violence, stalking, and the like.

We’ve previously written about some of these laws here and here.

Key provisions of the Missouri law are as follows:

Covered employers under the law include the state or any agency of the state, political subdivision of the state, and private employers of at least 20 employees.

Covered employees. Missouri employees are eligible as of date of hire.

Leave reasons and covered relationships. An employee is eligible to take leave under the law if the employee is a victim of domestic or sexual violence, or to care for a family or household member who is a victim of domestic or sexual violence. The law defines “family or household member” as:

Spouse
Parent
Son or daughter
Other person related by blood or by present or prior marriage
Other person who shares a relationship through a son or daughter, and
Persons jointly residing in the same household

Leave Duration. Employers with 20-49 employees must provide an employee 1 workweek of leave and employers with 50 or more employees must provide 2 workweeks of leave during any 12-month period. The employee can take the leave continuously, intermittently, or on a reduced schedule.

Leave is available for the following purposes for the employee or to assist the employee’s family or household member:

Seeking medical attention for, or recovering from, physical or psychological injuries caused by domestic or sexual violence to the employee or the employee's family or household member
Obtaining services from a victim services organization for the employee or the employee's family or household member
Obtaining psychological or other counseling for the employee or the employee's family or household member
Participating in safety planning, temporarily or permanently relocating, or taking other actions to increase the safety of the employee or the employee's family or household member from future domestic or sexual violence or to ensure economic security, or
Seeking legal assistance or remedies to ensure the health and safety of the employee or the employee's family or household member, including preparing for or participating in any civil or criminal legal proceeding related to or derived from domestic or sexual violence

Employee notice and documentation. An employee must provide at least 48 hours’ notice of the need for leave, unless providing advance notice is not possible. An employer may require documentation that an employee, or employee’s family or household member, is a victim of domestic or sexual violence. An employee may satisfy the documentation requirement by providing a sworn statement and:

Documentation from an employee, agent, or volunteer of a victim services organization, an attorney, a member of the clergy, or a medical or other professional from whom the employee or the employee's family or household member has sought assistance in addressing domestic violence or sexual violence and the effects of such violence;
A police or court record; or
Other corroborating evidence.

Employer’s Duty to Provide Safety Accommodations. The law imposes a duty on an employer to make reasonable safety accommodations in a timely manner resulting from circumstances relating to being a victim of domestic or sexual violence. The law defines reasonable safety accommodation as:

An adjustment to a job structure, workplace facility, or work requirement, including a transfer, reassignment, modified schedule, leave, a changed telephone number or seating assignment, installation of a lock, implementation of a safety procedure, or assistance in documenting domestic violence that occurs at the workplace or in work-related settings, in response to actual or threatened domestic violence.

Additionally, any exigent circumstances or danger facing the employee or his or her family or household member must be considered when determining whether the accommodation is reasonable. However, the employer is under no such duty if it can demonstrate that the accommodation would impose significant difficulty or expense, when considered in light of the nature and cost of the accommodation.

Use of Other Paid Leave. The law specifies that the leave is unpaid but is silent as to whether an employee can or must use accrued paid time off during a leave. The safest interpretation will be to allow employee to use other accrued paid leave such as PTO or, in some cases, paid sick leave, at their option but not to mandate such use.

Confidentiality. As with other similar laws, employers have a duty to maintain the confidentiality of information received about an employee’s status as a victim of domestic violence.

MATRIX CAN HELP! At Matrix we’re always monitoring state legislatures to keep an eye on the state leave landscape. Our trained staff of absence management experts specialize in understanding the intersection of state and federal leave protections. We take various steps to maintain an employee’s (or victim’s) privacy and safety. For example, we administer these domestic and sexual violence laws under the name “Personal Protected Leave”. For more information about our leave management and accommodation solutions, contact your Matrix/Reliance Standard account manager now, or send us a message at ping@matrixcos.com.