The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is one of the most important laws covering employees. It protects employees from losing their jobs if they need to take unpaid leave for illness — their own or a family member’s — childbirth, adoption, or caregiving. Employees who exercise leave are entitled to reinstatement to the position they held before taking the leave or to an equivalent position.
Employees do not have to say the magic words “FMLA” or “Family and Medical Leave Act” to qualify for FMLA leave. In most cases employees only need to put their employer on notice that their situation may qualify as an FMLA-protected event, and it is the employer’s responsibility to offer the employee FMLA leave.
You are eligible for FMLA leave if you:
- Work for an employer who employs 50 or more people
- Have been employed for at least 12 months
- Have worked at least 1,250 hours during the 12-month period immediately preceding the start of the leave
- Are employed at a worksite where 50 or more employees are employed by the employer within 75 miles of that worksite.
Unfortunately, some companies don’t understand their employees’ rights under the FMLA. They sometimes deny reasonable requests for leave. They may penalize employees for taking leave. The decision to take even a short term medical leave may factor into a layoff decision. That is illegal.
The FMLA makes it unlawful for an employer to interfere with, restrain or deny the exercise of or the attempt to exercise any right or benefit provided by the FMLA. An employer’s interference with the exercise of an employee’s rights under the FMLA includes not only refusing to authorize FMLA leave, but discouraging an employee from using such leave and manipulation by a covered employer to avoid responsibilities under the FMLA. In order to prove a case under the FMLA interference, the employee must show that he or she was entitled to benefits under the FMLA and that he or she was denied them. The employee does not need to show that the employer treated other employees more or less favorably and the employer cannot justify its actions by showing that it did not intend it or it had a legitimate business reason for it. A FMLA claim for entitlement or interference is not about discrimination, but instead, whether the employer provided its employees the entitlements guaranteed by the FMLA.