FMLA Provides Protection to Employees Caring for Family Members
Do you have difficulty managing a full time job and getting your parent or child to all of his or her doctor’s appointments or health care appointments? Faced with a dilemma of working full-time hours and not knowing what to do, you may qualify for relief under the Family Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA).
The FMLA permits “eligible” employees to take up to twelve unpaid, job-protected workweeks of leave within a twelve-month period. To be an eligible employee, one must meet all four of these criteria:
- Works for a private-sector employer with 50 or more employees or a public agency, including a local, state or Federal government agency, regardless of the number of people employed by them.
- Has worked for the employer at least 12 months (does not have to be consecutive months)
- Has worked at least 1,250 hours in the previous 12 months with the employer prior to the leave
- Works at a location where the employer has at least 50 employees within a 75-mile radius
Qualified reasons for medical leave must meet at least one of these requirements:
- The birth of a son or daughter or placement of a son or daughter of the employee for adoption or foster care
- To care for a spouse, son, daughter, or parent with a serious health condition
- A serious health condition that makes the employee incapable of performing essential functions of his/her own job
- Any qualifying emergency that occurs due to the fact that a spouse, son, daughter, or parent is a military member that is on covered active duty or call to covered active duty
There are some circumstances where FMLA leave can be approved on an intermittent or reduced schedule basis. This will allow the employee to use only the amount of time necessary to provide care for the family member. For example, if your parent has a doctor’s appointment that you need to take them to, you may want to report to work either before or after the appointment so that only the time away is counted towards the leave. An employer must allow the employee to use the smallest increments of time for leave as it would for any other type of leave when calculating how much time is used towards FMLA. FMLA leave is unpaid; however, employers may require that any accrued paid time off, such as, vacation or personal time be used while you are taking FMLA leave.
An employer may require the employee to provide certification from a health care provider when that employee is initially seeking FMLA approval. Additionally, the employer may require re-certification at a later date if it questions the appropriateness of the leave, its duration, or if the serious health condition continues into a new year.
As an employee on approved FMLA leave, you have job protection rights. Once returning from FMLA leave, an employee must be allowed to return to their original job position; however, your employer can transfer you to another position that is virtually identical as long as it has equivalent pay, benefits, and other employment terms and conditions (including shift and location). An employee does not have protection rights if the employee would have been affected by an action within the company if they weren’t on FMLA. For instance, if a shift has been eliminated within the company or overtime was cancelled or decreased for its employees.
It is unlawful for an employer to try to interfere with, retaliate against, discourage, deny, discriminate, discharge, or harass you in your attempt to apply for or use FMLA leave. For violations of FLMA, you can either pursue your remedies privately with your own attorney or you can file a complaint with the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor. To pursue the matter privately, schedule a consultation with The Law Offices of Maureen B. Godfrey, PLLC at (800) 791-0206 or email me at godfreylawoffice@gmail.com.
