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An Act To Assist Maine Military Families
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1. 26 MRSA §814, sub-§2,  as enacted by PL 2005, c. 523, §2, is amended to read:
 
2. Family military leave requirement.   Subject to the requirements of subsection 3, an employer that employs 5015 or more employees shall provide each eligible employee up to 15 days of family military leave per deployment, if requested by the employee. Family military leave under this subsection may be taken only during the 15 days immediately prior to deployment, the 15 days during deployment when the military member is granted leave or the 15 days immediately following the period of deployment, or both. Family military leave granted under this section may consist of unpaid leave.
 
SUMMARY
This bill amends the law pertaining to reserve training and military service leave. Current law provides that employers of 50 or more employees must allow a military family member 15 days of unpaid leave either before or after a service member is deployed. The bill allows the family members the option of using some of those days of unpaid leave while the service member has returned on leave granted from the combat theater. In addition, the bill changes the 50 or more employees criterion to 15 or more employees.