Fired After Family Medical Leave |
5 examples of FMLA leave

Legal cases involving job terminations due to
Family Medical Leave often occur when:

1. The employer fails to reinstate the employee to their job after they took Family Medical Leave
2. The employer claims the employee can be fired because they exhausted Family Medical Leave, but the employee’s medical condition qualified as a disability, or they were entitled to more than twelve weeks off because they were pregnant
3. The employer gives the employee’s job away following the employee first taking off for Family Medical Leave
4. The employer tires of intermittent Family Medical Leave absences and fires the employee
5. The employer does not want to allow an employee to take a Family Medical Act leave of absence, and they peremptorily fire the employee before the FMLA medical leave is to begin

All of the above prerequisites for CFRA/FMLA leaves of absence can be waived by the employer. There are some employers whom have less than fifty employees and provide CFRA/FMLA coverage to their employees. There are also some employers whom allow employees to take more than twelve weeks for CFRA/FMLA leave and/or they include baby bonding in their CFRA/FMLA coverage. Certainly, an employee should not count on any of these rare exceptions being made to what the California Family Rights Leave Act or Family Medical Leave Act covers.

FMLA Family Leave

Both the Federal Medical Leave Act officially known as the Family Medical Leave Act and the California version of the Family Medical Leave Act allow FMLA leaves for absences to take care of family members. Actual family care is required in order to qualify for FMLA Medical Leave due to the care of family members. Merely providing moral support is not family care. Administrating medications, feeding, bathing, and grooming is actual family care covered by Family Medical Leave Act laws.

Family Care and Medical Leave is officially defined in California law as:

Leave for reason of a child of the employee, the placement of the child…adoption or foster care of the child, or a serious health condition of the employee

Leave to care for a parent or a spouse who has a serious health condition

FMLA Medical Leave

FMLA medical leave, as well as CFRA medical leave in California, is medical leave due to a serious medical condition. Serious medical conditions allowing CFRA or FMLA Medical Leave Include an illness, injury, impairment, or physical or mental condition that involves any of the following: Inpatient care in a hospital, hospice, or residential care facility, continuing treatment or supervision by a health care provider

A FMLA leave of absence may be up to twelve weeks. FMLA medical leaves can be taken continuously for up to twelve weeks. It is also possible to take a FMLA medical leave of absence on different days up to twelve weeks in a calendar year.

Understand What Is A FMLA Leave Of Absence

To summarize, a FMLA leave of absence is a leave to treat an employee’s serious health condition, or the serious health condition of a family member. A FMLA leave of absence may be up to twelve weeks in a calendar year. A FMLA leave of absence does not have to be taken all at once.

Employers should be made aware the leave of absence is taken as a FMLA leave of absence. The employer’s failure to properly designate the leave of absence as a FMLA leave of absence is adverse to the employer if the employee made it known the leave of absence was a FMLA leave of absence.

Common issues in CFRA/FMLA leave cases involve:

• Employers claiming they never received oral or written notice of the employee’s need for a leave qualifying as CFRA/FMLA leave of absence
• Absences to provide mere moral support to seriously ill family members, but not take care of them
• Employees who may have a somewhat serious medical conditions, but who fail to get enough medical treatment to qualify for CFRA/FMLA leave

Whatever the employer’s excuse was for your termination of employment, we would like to speak to you if you feel your CFRA/FMLA rights were violated. Our experience in CFRA/FMLA cases include multiple won binding arbitrations in which Family Medical Leave/California Family Rights Leave Act Rights were involved as well as jury trials. We have also settled many cases involving the failure to grant and/or loss of employment due to the exercise of Family Medical Leave/California Family Rights Leaves.

Sample California Family Rights/Family Medical Leave Act Case Results of Employment Lawyers Group:

MYLES V. WELL POINT AND LINK TO THE BINDING ARBITRATION AWARD

• Win of a binding arbitration involving a job termination due to Family Medical Leave Rights
• $159,660 settlement in 2014 dollars for failure to allow both FMLA and Pregnancy Leave of a Mission Hills Woman
• $112,863 settlement in 2014 dollars for a Wilmington forklift driver fired due to FMLA leave

In Los Angeles County we have offices in downtown Los Angeles, Gardena, and Sherman Oaks. We also have offices in Tustin, Riverside, San Diego, Oxnard, Bakersfield, San Francisco, and Sacramento. All of our employment cases are handled by firm founder, Karl Gerber, and one of our long term staff attorneys.

Call 1-877-525-0700 for a dedicated, experienced Family Medical Leave Act lawyer who will take your case on a contingency.