Have Your FMLA Rights Been Interfered With?
The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA), is a United States federal law brought in to help try and balance the demands of the workplace, with the medical needs of employees and their families.
How does the FMLA affect employers and employees? Covered employees are now required by law to give their employees unpaid leave (which leaves their job protected) for certain medical and family reasons. Reasons may include the employee being ill themselves, an immediate member of their family being ill (which federal law usually states are parents, spouses and children, but may also include domestic partners, parent-in-laws, siblings or grandparents, depending on what state you live in), family military leave, adoption, pregnancy or the foster care placement of a child. The unpaid leave may total up to 12 weeks during a period of 12 months, and may also be taken in smaller chunks of time, such as for a doctors’ appointment.
The FMLA also states that the employees group health benefits must be maintained during the period of leave. Who is eligible for FMLA leave? Eligible employees must have worked at the company for at least 12 months and worked a minimum of 1,250 hours over that past year. The company the employee works for, must also employ 50 or more employees within a radius of 75 miles.
Public and private sector workers are covered by the FMLA, but elected officials and their personal team members for example, are not, so there are some categories of worker who will not be eligible. In what ways, might my FMLA rights be interfered with? There are basically two ways, as defined by law, in which your employer could be said to not be allowing you to freely exercise your right to be protected by the FMLA:
Interfering with your FMLA rights Retaliating against you for exercising your FMLA rights Interfering with your rights may include instances in which your employer: Places you in a lower status position when you return to work after your FMLA leave, having made changes to personnel in your absence There is a standard absence policy within your company, whereby employees are fired when they reach a certain total of absences within a particular time frame.
FMLA leave is clearly being counted towards this, with no exceptions Your sales quota period may have included time during your FMLA leave, and so when you miss your sales quota because you were lawfully absent, your employer fires you Retaliating against your FMLA claim may manifest itself in the following ways: Your employer fires you knowing that you’re about to take FMLA leave, finding an illegitimate reason to do so
Your employer finds an illegitimate reason to fire you shortly after you’ve taken FMLA leave, as they know that you’ll be required to take more FMLA leave in the future The law clearly states that employers cannot make life difficult for employees for requesting FMLA leave, and they may in no way interfere with an employees’ right to return to work after they’ve taken FMLA leave; try to be clear on your rights. Should you believe however, that your FMLA rights have been interfered with, don’t hesitate to contact an employment attorney, who will ensure that you get the best advice and guidance for your circumstances.
Nelson Law Group is an employment law firm located in Knoxville, Tennessee. We are in business to represent employees. We also represent people facing family issues, such as divorce and child custody. We tailor a strategy for each case based on what is most important to you, our client. Whether you are looking for employment attorney knoxville TN or disability discrimination lawyers knoxville TN, call us today at (865) 383-1053.