FMLA – Family Medical Leave Act
Passed by Congress in 1993, the FMLA was passed by Congress to allow workers to take time off to provide for a newborn, take care of an ill family member, or manage their own health, guaranteed for up to twelve weeks per year.
Certain qualifiers must be met to be eligible for FMLA leave:
- Have worked for your employer for at least 12 months and worked for at least 1,250 hours during the previous 12-month cycle.
- Work at a location where your employer has at least 50 employees within 75 miles of your worksite. Government workers are covered regardless of the employee amount or worksite location.
When you return from FMLA leave, you have the right to be reinstated to your old or similar job with no loss of benefits. You also have the option of keeping any employer-sponsored health insurance while on leave, as long as you continue to make any mandatory employee contributions.
It is prohibited for an employer to intimidate, threaten, or force an employee, or to seek to interfere with, impede, or reject an employee’s exercise of FMLA rights, either directly or indirectly. Employers cannot promise a benefit in exchange for an employee’s refusal to take FMLA leave, nor can they take or threaten retaliation against an employee for taking FMLA leave, filing a charge or complaint, providing information in connection with an investigation or proceeding, testifying in court on an FMLA case, and so on. Also, it is illegal for an employer to terminate or discriminate against an employee who makes use of their FMLA rights.
Employees looking to make a claim have two years from the date of the FMLA violation.
Reasonable Accommodations
An accommodation is a modification to the work environment or task that enables someone who is otherwise competent to fulfill the job’s fundamental functions. An accommodation is reasonable if it does not endanger the employee or cause the employer an “undue hardship.”
An undue hardship for the employer could mean a variety of things, for example, depending on the size or type of work being done as well as the resources available could all be factored into offering or accepting proposed accommodations. In theory, if an employer were to reject a proposed accommodation on the basis of undue hardship, they should be willing to show how and work with the employee on providing some alternative options.
