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 youre about to take FMLA leave, finding an
illegitimate reason to do so

Your employer finds an illegitimate reason to fire you shortly after youve taken
FMLA leave, as they know that youll 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 theyve taken FMLA leave; try to be clear on your rights.
Should you believe however, that your FMLA rights have been interfered with,
dont 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
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TN, call us today at (865) 383-1053.