Ohio — Leave Laws

Ohio has not enacted a state family or medical leave statute that supplements the federal Family and Medical Leave Act. Private-sector employers in Ohio operate under the federal FMLA exclusively for general family and medical leave. Employees seeking unpaid, job-protected leave for a serious health condition, to care for a covered family member, or for birth or adoption must meet federal FMLA eligibility (covered employer, 12 months of service, 1,250 hours in the preceding 12 months) and are limited to the federal 12-week entitlement. Ohio does provide a separate military family leave right under Ohio Revised Code Chapter 5906, discussed in a later section.

Source: 29 U.S.C. § 2601 et seq. (FMLA) | Ohio Rev. Code Ch. 5906 (military family leave)

Ohio requires employers with 50 or more employees to provide up to 10 days or 80 hours (whichever is less) of unpaid leave per calendar year when an employee's parent, spouse, child, or person under the employee's legal custody who is a member of the uniformed services is either (1) called to active duty for more than 30 days or (2) injured, wounded, or hospitalized while serving on active duty. To qualify, the employee must have worked at least 12 consecutive months and 1,250 hours in the preceding 12 months. The employee must have exhausted all available leave except sick leave or disability leave, and must provide at least 14 days' notice for deployment leave or 2 days' notice for injury leave (waived for critical or life-threatening injuries). Leave dates must occur no more than two weeks before or one week after the service member's deployment. Upon return, the employer must restore the employee to the same position or one with equivalent seniority, benefits, and pay.

Source: Ohio Rev. Code § 5906.02 | Ohio Rev. Code § 5906.01

Ohio Rev. Code § 2313.19 provides two distinct protections for employees summoned for state-court jury duty: a prohibition on adverse employment action and a ban on requiring employees to exhaust paid leave. Both apply to all private and public employers in Ohio; neither statute imposes an employer-size threshold.

Discharge and disciplinary-action prohibition (§ 2313.19(A))

An employer may not discharge, threaten to discharge, or take any disciplinary action that could lead to the discharge of a permanent employee who is summoned to serve as a juror under Ohio Rev. Code Chapter 2313, provided the employee (1) gives reasonable notice to the employer of the summons prior to the commencement of jury service and (2) is absent from employment because of actual jury service. The statute does not define "permanent employee" for private-sector purposes; courts and agency interpretations have not settled whether it excludes probationary, seasonal, or temporary employees. Ohio Admin. Code 123:1-47-01(56) defines "permanent employee" for state civil service as a person in a position requiring a regular schedule of at least 26 consecutive bi-weekly pay periods that is not limited to a specific season or duration, but that definition is not codified for private employers. An employer seeking to apply the statute only to non-probationary or indefinite-duration employees faces interpretive risk; the safer practice is to extend the discharge protection to all employees summoned for jury duty.

The reasonable-notice condition is mandatory but not further specified in the statute. Courts in Butler and Franklin counties have indicated that notice must be given "after receiving a jury duty summons" and should allow the employer time to make staffing arrangements; 14 days is a common benchmark drawn from the typical interval between summons mailing and service date, though the statute does not prescribe a floor.

Prohibition on requiring paid-leave use (§ 2313.19(B))

Separately, § 2313.19(B) bars an employer from requiring or requesting an employee to use annual, vacation, or sick leave for time spent responding to a summons, participating in the jury selection process, or actually serving on a jury. Unlike subsection (A), subsection (B) applies to "an employee" without the "permanent" qualifier, indicating that the PTO-use prohibition reaches all employees regardless of status. The statute explicitly states that this prohibition does not require an employer to provide annual, vacation, or sick leave to employees who are not otherwise entitled to those benefits under the employer's policies. In practice, this means (1) an employer that offers PTO may not compel an employee on jury duty to deplete it, but (2) an employer with no PTO policy has no obligation to create one or to pay employees for jury-service hours. Ohio law does not require private employers to compensate employees for jury duty time; only public-sector employers are subject to separate compensation rules under Ohio Admin. Code provisions governing state, county, and municipal civil service.

Scope of protected jury service

The statute covers three phases: responding to a summons (which includes time traveling to court and checking in), participating in the jury selection process (voir dire), and actually serving on a jury (trial or deliberation). An employee dismissed mid-day during voir dire remains protected for the full day of service; the employer may not require the employee to return to work immediately upon release if doing so would impose an unreasonable burden, though the statute does not establish a bright-line rule on same-day return.

Enforcement and penalties

An employer that violates § 2313.19 (either subsection (A) or (B)) may be punished as for contempt of court under Ohio Rev. Code Chapter 2705. Ohio Rev. Code § 2313.99(A) cross-references this penalty. Contempt sanctions under § 2705 can include fines and imprisonment at the court's discretion. An employee whose employer terminates or disciplines them in violation of § 2313.19(A), or who is compelled to use PTO in violation of § 2313.19(B), should notify the jury commissioner or clerk of the court that issued the summons; the court may initiate contempt proceedings sua sponte or on the employee's complaint. The statute does not create a private cause of action for damages, but an aggrieved employee may also pursue a wrongful-discharge claim under Ohio common law if the termination violates public policy (jury service is a recognized public-policy anchor in Ohio case law).

Federal overlay

The federal Jury System Improvements Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1875, separately prohibits discharge or intimidation of any permanent employee on account of federal jury service and provides for reinstatement, back pay, and attorney's fees. An employer must comply with both the federal statute (for federal jury duty) and Ohio Rev. Code § 2313.19 (for state jury duty). The Ohio statute's "permanent employee" limitation in subsection (A) mirrors the federal statute's language, though neither defines the term, creating parallel ambiguity.

Source: Ohio Rev. Code § 2313.19 | Ohio Rev. Code § 2313.99