Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and Maternity/Pregnancy Leave Rights
Many employees, especially from smaller companies, do not understand what rights they have to time off from work due to being sick, injured or needing to care for a family member. In fact, there are penalties against companies that do not properly inform employees of their medical leave rights or if the company does not allow leave or fails to put an employee back to work. There may be several types of rights to medical leave from work. One is from the sick leave policy of a company. Another may be from State laws - which do not exist in Nevada. The third is from a Federal law called the Family and Medical Leave Act, often abbreviated as the FMLA or F.M.L.A. If an employee does not have rights to leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act, then the company's sick leave policy may be the only rights an employee has.
There are many parts to the Family and Medical Leave Act that are too involved to be discussed here, but in general it is an employee friendly law and a heavy burden is placed on the company to be aware of the FMLA requirements and to inform its employees of their rights. Employees have FMLA rights even if they don't know how to properly ask for the leave. So if anything ever seems unfair, an attorney that is knowledgeable with FMLA leave should be contacted - especially since the Family and Medical Leave Act can get complicated.
To be eligible for FMLA leave,
the company must be large enough so it can
absorb any leave taken. The government
requires that the company have 50 employees
working within a 75 mile radius. The
employee must also have worked for the company
for at least one year for at least 1250 hours -
which averages to about 24 hours per week.
So most part time employees are eligible for
FMLA leave. Nevada
Family Medical Leave Act lawyer and attorney in
Reno, Sparks, Carson Las Vegas.
Not
all types of illnesses are eligible for FMLA
leave. Being sick with a cold is not
enough. Instead it must be more serious.
In general the employee must either be placed in
a hospital or not be able to work for 3 or more
days, but this is not always required.
Leave is also available if necessary to care for
a family member. Pregnancy and maternity
leave may also be covered by the FMLA.
Additionally, intermittent leave is available
for medical conditions such as the need for
dialysis or fibromyalgia and other medical or
health conditions.
A company must give FMLA leave
to any employee it knows
may need leave.
It is the obligation of the employee to inform
the company if there is some medical reason they
are unable to work. Just saying you are
sick may not be enough, but saying you in a car
accident and had to go to the hospital may be
enough. Often employees aren't
knowledgeable with the FMLA and so they do not
ask for it, but instead say what has happened to
them. This puts an obligation on the
company to inquire further if they get enough
information that the employee might be covered
under the FMLA. The company must then
inform the employee one way or the other whether
or not they are entitled to FMLA leave. If
the employee knows leave will be needed in the
future such as for planned surgery, then the
employee must give the company as much notice as
possible and 30 days notice when possible. Las
Vegas, Nevada Family and Medical Leave Act
Sparks, Reno, and Carson.
An
employee is allowed to have 12 weeks of leave
per year and in some limited instances even more
time than 12 weeks. During this leave,
there may be certain obligations put on the
employee such as keeping the company informed of
their continued need for leave. Once
family medical leave
is over, an employee is entitled to have their
job back or at least an equivalent job. If
the employee is not given their job back, then
the employee may file a lawsuit for an FMLA
violation and the company
may have to pay double wages the employee would
have earned not to mention court costs.
Sparks Family and
Medical Leave Act (FMLA) lawyer attorney for
Reno, Nevada, Carson City and Las Vegas.