Family Medical Leave Act Pennsylvania Department of Labor

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is a federal statute that provides qualified employees with the right to job-protected, unpaid go out. You have to employ for exit under the Family and Medical Leave Act to receive it.

At some point in your life, you are likely going to need to take leave. Whether for good news – the nascency or adoption of your kid. Or for bad news – for your illness or the illness of a loved one. The FMLA can help.

Employers are mostly understanding. But, of form, sometimes they are not. They may endeavor to interfere with your leave. Or they may retaliate confronting you.

In these situations,The Lacy Employment Law Business firm can help you bargain with FMLA violations by employers.

In this guide, we will acquire:

Who qualifies for FMLA leave;
Your employer's obligations under the FMLA;
How weather qualify for FMLA leave;
How long the FMLA provides job protection;
Whether you lot will receive pay while on FMLA go out;
How to sue for FMLA violations;
How the FMLA applies in Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh;

This data will help inform y'all of your rights in the workplace. And, if you lot need to sue for an FMLA violation, you lot volition know the right questions to enquire your lawyer during the initial consultation.

Overview of the FMLA

The Family and Medical Leave Act differs slightly from other employment statutes.

Title VII, the ADEA, and the ADA forbid discrimination in the workplace.

That is, they forestall the employer from treating you differently because of your race. Or considering you are a woman. Or because yous are disabled; you lot become the point.

The FMLA provides employees the right to protected get out and ensures that your employer does not retaliate against you for taking get out.

FMLA lawyers who advise and litigate FMLA problems know that employers ofttimes fail to honor your rights. Information technology may exist that your employer committed FMLA Retaliation or FMLA Interference.

If you are applying for FMLA leave or believe you are entitled to FMLA leave, information technology's never a bad idea to contact an employment lawyer. There's paperwork involved.

And the process is non equally straightforward equally you lot might think.

You may also have to resort to litigation. That is, where you lot bring a lawsuit and argue that your employer violated the FMLA and federal law.

Before rushing to federal court, you lot should first accept some general information most how the statute works and your rights under it.

Who Qualifies for FMLA in PA?

To authorize for FMLA leave in PA yous must meet the conditions set in the Family and Medical Leave Deed statute.

Nether the FMLA, you have the correct to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per yr .

Y'all become this right later telling your employer that y'all demand time off because of your health or the health of your loved ane.

The Section of Labor ("DOL") provides the following information regarding the FMLA .

Permit's interruption this downward. To qualify for FMLA leave, you take to work for your employer for at least 12 months. And so, y'all can't become FMLA if yous just started your job.

Additional requirements include:

Y'all have to have worked at least 1,250 hours in the by 12 months.
You would have to work for about 24 hours a week for 52 weeks.
If you took holiday fourth dimension, that number goes upwardly to about 26 hours a week.

The FMLA also has a 50/75 rule.

This means you can only request FMLA if you lot piece of work for a company with over 50 employees. This is to protect small businesses that cannot afford to requite unpaid leave.

And l employees must accept worked within 75 miles from the worksite.

Employers who see these guidelines are known as covered employers. These federal laws equally apply to y'all in Pennsylvania and any other land.

And the Department of Labor enforces this constabulary.

What are your Employer's Obligations under the FMLA?

The Family and Medical Leave Act requires employers to display a poster providing information about employees' rights nether the FMLA. The poster should sum up your rights nether the FMLA.

You can detect a re-create of the DOL'south sample poster on its website. The Section of Labor allows employers to use its sample poster. There is no excuse for an employer not to follow this requirement.

As well, covered employers must brandish the affiche in plain view. That's important. It also must be visible. This ways that your employer cannot hide it behind a garbage can.

For employees that practise not read and write in English, employers must provide the detect in a linguistic communication in which employees can sympathise.

If employers fail to comply with this requirement, the Department of Labor can fine them.

The " posting " requirement is not important to your rights. Just you lot should exist enlightened it exists. It provides a adept summary of the FMLA and your rights nether it.

Further, you can let your coworkers know that they can cheque the poster if they take questions. Although the poster is supposed to exist visible, you lot can imagine someone walking past it if they do not know it exists.

If y'all authorize for FMLA leave your employer must give information technology to you. And your employer cannot retaliate or interfere with your correct to accept information technology. Remember, you have a statutory right to unpaid leave. And your employer cannot frustrate that correct.

What Atmospheric condition Qualify for FMLA?

In that location are many family and medical weather condition that qualify under the Family and Medical Exit Act. The FMLA lists the different ways you might qualify for FMLA leave. The Department of Labor (DOL) provides guidance on that:

As you can see from the DOL's guidance, yous can asking FMLA under a variety of circumstances.

At that place are several common reasons that employees request FMLA. Sickness and inability fall into this category.

At some point in your life, yous may discover yourself becoming sick or disabled. This may crave you to take time off from work to recover. The constabulary protects your employer from discriminating against you for becoming disabled.

The Americans with Disabilities Human activity (ADA) provides broad protections for those who suffer from a inability.

The FMLA ensures that you lot are provided with time to recover when yous become sick. And also fourth dimension to cope with a disability.

Notwithstanding, you practise non have to be disabled to receive FMLA leave. The FMLA covers whatever serious health condition. A serious condition might involve you becoming sick, rather than disabled.

To receive FMLA leave, you lot have to enquire your employer for leave and fill out the paperwork they send you by the borderline.

Normally, companies grant leave. But there are situations in which employers attempt to interfere with the employee's rights.

Farther, concerning childbirth, women frequently face a hard selection. Equally you can run across from the data published in an article that Bob Dietrich wrote, pregnancy is the most often reason people take FMLA.

After paid maternity leave runs out, many women decide to take unpaid FMLA leave to care for their newborn kid.

Pregnancy bigotry unmistakably exists in the workplace. And mothers coming back from paid maternity get out must decide betwixt taking more unpaid leave or coming dorsum before you are gear up to gratify the boss.

If your employer refuses to requite yous exit or discourages yous from taking exit, you may have an FMLA interference claim.

In improver, hither are some other common reasons why eligible employees take FMLA leave:

To care for family members, including a spouse, child, or parent. Some states include siblings, grandparents, domestic partners, and others in the definition of a family unit member;
Adoption or foster care ;
A father case use FMLA to care for a newborn kid and to care for his spouse who is incapacitated for medical reasons (due to pregnancy or childbirth) ;
Taking unpaid exit to heal from an injury constituting a serious health condition;

How Long volition the FMLA Protect your Job?

Under the FMLA, you lot are entitled to 12 workweeks of leave in a 12-month flow.

You lot can likewise apply for intermittent FMLA get out, which allows you to only take leave equally you need it. This allows you to accept 12 weeks of leave in blocks equally needed. For example, you lot can accept fourth dimension off here and there to go to medico's appointments.

This might lead y'all to believe that your job is protected for the entire 12 weeks while you are on leave. I wish that were the case.

An employer can yet fire you while y'all are on leave. A big misconception is that this is illegal.

It is not. Your employer cannot fire you lot because you are on leave. Just your employer can fire yous for other reasons.

Employment is at volition in the United States. That means that your employer tin fire yous for whatever legal reason. These reasons may include:

Poor omnipresence;
Poor operation;
Disciplinary problems;
Personality conflicts; and
Reductions in Force.

Your company cannot, however, terminate your employment for an illegal reason. Illegal reasons are those that violate federal and state employment laws.

Federal and state employment laws are designed to protect a multifariousness of protected classes from bigotry and retaliation. A protected grade is a group of people qualified for protection under the law.

Equally employment lawyers, nosotros run across a lot of cases where employees allege that their employer violated the FMLA and the ADA.

You exercise not get Paid while on FMLA

Nether the Family and Medical Leave Act, your get out is unpaid. Y'all exercise take the right to go along group health benefits during the leave.

You lot can, withal, file a disability insurance claim for short term and long term disability at the same time.

Disability insurance can combine with FMLA leave to give y'all job protection and a portion of your income.

Some other common question regarding the FMLA is whether you can receive unemployment benefits at the aforementioned time. Unfortunately, y'all are generally not able to collect unemployment while on FMLA leave.

At that place are a couple of exceptions:

Y'all have restrictions but believe that you lot tin can work, and your company forces you to have leave anyway.
You lot can work in other positions at the visitor, but your employer won't let you.

Can You Sue Your Employer for Violating the FMLA?

You can sue your employer for violating your rights nether the Family and Medical Exit Act. While on FMLA, your task is protected. If you are fired, y'all likely volition accept a case for FMLA violations.

FMLA leave is closely-related to inability discrimination. FMLA violations ofttimes occur in conjunction with disability claims. FMLAs claim tends to bolster an ADA discrimination claim.

If a company fires someone while they are on leave, there's a good argument that they did so because they found out they were disabled.

Imagine having depression. And you request leave to nourish psychiatry appointments. Or perchance it gets so bad that yous exercise an inpatient stay at a hospital.

If yous are a covered person under the FMLA, you have the right to go out. If you told your company about your depression, and they burn down y'all while you lot are on leave, you have a disability discrimination and retaliation claim, likewise every bit FMLA, claims interference and retaliation.

Those 2 claims are non mutually exclusive.

The same goes for pregnancy. If your company fires you while you are on pregnancy leave, you may have a case for pregnancy discrimination and retaliation and FMLA violations.

The FMLA more often than not accompanies other types of employment claims, merely it does not have to.

FMLA Retaliation is a Violation of the FMLA

You tin sue under the Family and Medical Leave Act if your visitor discriminates or retaliates against yous for taking get out. To succeed on a claim for FMLA retaliation you must testify:

That or requested FMLA exit,
Your employer took an adverse employment action against you lot, and
Your employer took this action because you took or requested exit.

Permit's look at an example.

Looking at by cases helps illustrate how a judge might decide a example in the future. The law may seem articulate. There'southward no question that your employer can't fire you because you took leave or considering y'all requested leave.

Only what lawyers are trained to do is take the police and fence that its estimation is in your favor. In this example, unfortunately, the lawyer for the employee was unsuccessful

The Plaintiff-employee (person suing), Ms. Allen, alleged that her company retaliated against her after she took FMLA leave. Ms. Allen took 3 leaves of absences during her employment with Nutrisystem.

During her employment, Ms. Allen complained numerous times virtually her work environment. She fifty-fifty filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for race discrimination.

Subsequently Ms. Allen returned to work after her tertiary FMLA leave, her company wrote her up three times. These write-ups were for:

A no call/no prove;
A "last written warning" to Plaintiff every bit a result of her violation of Defendant's phone call policies and her treatment of customers; and
A "coaching notice" regarding her hanging up on a argumentative client.

Her company fired her just two months after she returned from her 3rd leave.

Ms. Allen lost this instance:

The court went on to find that her firing simply two months after her third go out was not "causally related" to her request for FMLA exit.

The court found that being fired 2 months afterward requesting go out and coming back from get out was insufficient. That is, that her request for leave was too far removed from her firing.

Interestingly, the court did non discuss her multiple write-ups after coming back from leave.

Ane might argue that this is a bad fact. It'southward evidence that she's a poor employee. I'd fence to the contrary.

Her employers peppered her file with write-ups to set the record to somewhen burn her. It doesn't appear that her lawyers argued this, however.

This is a real case that happened. As you can see, even though this case appeared straightforward, it was not.

That's why a good attorney is crucial for FMLA cases. There are e'er nuances in the statute. The statutory linguistic communication is e'er subject to interpretation and argument over it.

Good lawyers know how to maneuver through these nuances and position your case for the all-time possible result.

Employers Violate the FMLA by Interfering with your Rights

FMLA interference is like FMLA retaliation. The difference is that your employer will attempt to interfere with your rights in certain ways.

Instead of firing you, your company may endeavor to discourage you lot from taking leave birthday.

If y'all sue your employer for interfering with your rights, employers volition have their ain very qualified lawyers helping them vigorously defend the claim. You should take the same.

To succeed on an FMLA interference merits, y'all simply have to prove that you lot were entitled to benefits under the FMLA and your company denied them.

These violations usually occur before your termination. And sometimes your termination volition quickly follow.

Here are some ways in which employers typically interfere with your rights:

Request you lot to piece of work while on get out. This is a large one. You shouldn't fifty-fifty have to open an e-postal service while on leave;
Making discouraging comments about you taking leave, such every bit – "if you proceed taking exit, I'm going to have to get rid of yous."
Trying to brand y'all take exit on a different date.
Making you request leave at an unreasonably long period of time before it begins. The FMLA only requires you to give 30-days' find, unless that is unworkable. Your company may try to requite 50-days' observe. Or they may deny you lot leave during an emergency. The FMLA allows for neither.
Your company may deny your valid FMLA claim outright.
Your visitor may also bench yous on your return. This one likely falls within the retaliation category.

Even if you have non been fired, it'southward never too early to contact an employment lawyer. An employment lawyer can help you avoid interference with your rights altogether.

How Does the FMLA Piece of work in PA?

Pennsylvania companies must comply with the Family and Medical Leave Act if they accept at least 50 employees for at to the lowest degree 20 weeks in the present or previous twelvemonth.

Employees may accept get out if they worked at least 1,250 hours in 12 calendar month period of time. This is the same as federal law.

The FMLA is a federal constabulary. Congress passed the law on a national level. This means that it applies to every state.

The FMLA is the floor, non the ceiling. States cannot pass laws giving you lot fewer rights than y'all would receive under federal police. Simply states are gratis to laissez passer laws giving you more rights.

Some states have passed laws expanding the FMLA in their respective state. Unfortunately, Pennsylvania has not opted to expand the FMLA.

If yous live in Pennsylvania, federal law, the FMLA, provides all of your rights for family unit and medical leave.

You May Accept a Correct to Ill Get out

The Family unit and Medical Leave Act does non requite you the right to sick time. No federal law gives you this correct. Your employer tin can, if it wants, make you use other paid time off days to cover your ill leave.

Unfortunately, Pennsylvania also does not have laws mandating that employers provide sick get out. Employers in Pennsylvania are not required to requite you paid or unpaid ill go out.

For those living in the two biggest cities in Pennsylvania, withal, you accept the correct to paid sick time.

Philadelphia Paid Sick Exit

Although federal law and state law do not crave employers to pay ill leave, Philadelphia city law does. This means that if you piece of work in the urban center of Philadelphia, your employer must provide y'all with sick leave.

You lot can find more information on the city of Philadelphia'south website. Just the highlights of the law are that:

Employers with x or more employees must provide paid sick leave;
Employers with 10 or fewer employees must provide unpaid sick go out;
The law covers all employees, even those that work part-time;
Independent contractors are not covered;
Y'all earn one hour of sick leave for every forty hours worked during the year;
Employers can front-load the time;
Your employer tin can — and likely volition — limit your sick go out to 40 hours;
Employees tin can you sick leave for themselves or to treat a ill family member;
If you utilise sick leave for two sequent days, your employer can require medical proof;
Your employer does non take to pay out unused ill days when you lot leave the company;
Employers cannot retaliate or discriminate against you lot for using get out;
Employers must notify you of sick leave rights;

These are the high-level points from the law. As you can run across, Philadelphia law provides employees a lot of protection when it comes to sick get out.

You can see how sick leave differs from the FMLA. For sick leave, yous accrue leave for everyone one worked. Or the employer tin choose to front-load the fourth dimension and give information technology to y'all at the beginning of the yr.

You will notice that you will likely only accrue, at the maximum, 40 hours of sick go out. Under the FMLA, your job is protected for 12 weeks. But you do non go paid.

Sick leave is a welcome addition to FMLA leave. Everyone gets sick from time to time. Before this law went into effect, you just had to promise that your employer provided you with this time.

If you lot alive in Philadelphia, y'all no longer have to hope.

Pittsburgh Paid Sick Go out

Pittsburgh recently passed its own paid sick leave law. Under the act:

Employers must provide employees with one hour of ill get out for every 35 hours worked;
The maximum sick fourth dimension accrued is forty hours for employers with over 15 employees;
The maximum sick time accrued is 24 hours for an employer with less than 15 employees;
Employers tin provide more generous sick fourth dimension leave.
Accrued sick fourth dimension tin can be used for your illness or to care for a family member.
The statute contains anti-retaliation provisions.

Pittsburgh's sick leave policy is very similar to Philadelphia's. Under both laws, you receive paid protection upwardly to twoscore hours a twelvemonth, in near circumstances.

If you lot piece of work in Pittsburgh or Philadelphia, before going on FMLA leave, you should consider using up your accrued sick time. That time is paid. And, like the FMLA, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia's ill time laws include anti-retaliation provisions.

This means that y'all take chore protection when you go out on sick leave.

If you live in other parts of Pennsylvania, you should check whether your city, county, or town has a sick leave policy. If it does, you want to make sure y'all have advantage.

Conclusion

The FMLA, similar other employment statutes, has certain landmines. This statute is unique considering, if you qualify, your employer has to provide you with a do good.

Sometimes employers deliberately deny employees their rights. And sometimes they negligently exercise then.

But, just remember, y'all take a correct to:

12 weeks of unpaid medical leave, if you qualify, and have been with your employer for at to the lowest degree a 12 month menses of time;
You have the right to FMLA if you take a qualifying issue, such as the birth of your child or an illness;
You take chore protection while on FMLA;
Y'all can sue for FMLA violations if you are fired while on FMLA;
Sick leave is bachelor in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh;

An employment lawyer can help you navigate leave for family and medical reasons. We are here to aid in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and throughout Pennsylvania.

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Source: https://employment-labor-law.com/fmla-pa/#:~:text=Pennsylvania%20companies%20must%20comply%20with,FMLA%20is%20a%20federal%20law.