Florida Employee Medical Leave Attorney

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is a federal law that protects eligible employees’ jobs and health benefits while they take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for family and medical reasons.

The FMLA allows eligible employees that work for covered employers to take leave for specific family and medical reasons without losing their job or health insurance.

To be eligible for FMLA leave, an employee must have worked for the employer for at least 12 months, completed 1,250 hours of service, and work at a location with 50 or more employees within 75 miles.

The FMLA applies to private employers with 50 or more employees, public agencies, and public and private schools.

Public agencies (such as state, local, and federal government employers), and private and public schools are covered by the FMLA regardless of how many employees they have.

Yes, if they have worked at least 1,250 hours over the past 12 months.

For remote workers, the employer’s office location where they report determines FMLA eligibility.

When an employee works remotely (for example, from their home), the “worksite location” is not the employee’s home. Instead, the worksite location used to determine eligibility is the office location to which the employee reports or from which they receive assignments. This location is used to determine whether the employer meets the “50-employees within 75 miles threshold” needed for the employee’s eligibility for FMLA.

Eligible employees can use FMLA leave for serious health conditions, bonding with a new child, caring for a family member, or certain military-related events.

Employees can take FMLA leave for:

– The birth and care of a newborn,

– Placement of a child for adoption or foster care,

– Caring for a spouse, child, or parent with a serious health condition,

– Their own serious health condition, or

– Certain reasons related to military family leave, including caring for a servicemember.

Employees can take up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave in a 12-month period, or up to 26 weeks for military caregiver leave.

No, leave is unpaid under the FMLA.

However, an employer may require, or the employee may choose, to use accrued paid leave (like vacation or sick leave) at the same time as FMLA leave.

Yes, an employer must maintain the employee’s group health insurance coverage during FMLA leave.

An employer must maintain the group health insurance coverage during FMLA leave on the same terms as if the employee had continued to work.

Yes, in most cases under the FMLA an employee is entitled to reinstatement to their same or an equivalent job.

Under the FMLA, an eligible employee must be restored to their original job or an equivalent job with the same pay, benefits, and other terms and conditions of employment.

However, special rules apply to “key employees” (the highest-paid 10% of employees), and reinstatement may not be required if doing so would cause substantial and grievous economic injury to the employer.

If possible, an employee should give at least 30 days’ notice. Otherwise, an employee should notify their employer as soon as practicable.

If the need for FMLA leave is foreseeable, an employee should provide at least 30 days’ advance notice. If that is not possible, then an employee should give notice as soon as practicable under the circumstances.

Yes, employers can require a medical certification to verify the need for FMLA leave.

An employer can require the employee to provide a certification from a health care provider to support the need for FMLA leave. If the certification is incomplete or insufficient, the employee should be given a chance to fix it.

Intermittent leave allows an employee to take FMLA leave in smaller, separate blocks of time for a single qualifying reason.

For example, taking time off every Thursday for medical treatments.

An employer may temporarily transfer an employee to another position that better accommodates their need for intermittent leave.

Yes, unless the employer agrees, intermittent leave for bonding with a new child can be restricted.

Employers may require that leave for the birth or placement of a healthy child be taken all at once, unless the employer agrees to allow intermittent or reduced-schedule leave.

If an employee does not return to work, the employer may recover health insurance premiums paid during leave.

If an employee does not return to work for a reason other than a continued serious health condition or circumstances beyond their control, their employer may recover its share of the health insurance premiums paid during their leave.

No, it is illegal for an employer to interfere with or retaliate against an employee for exercising their FMLA rights.

It is illegal for an employer to interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of any FMLA right. It is also illegal for an employer to retaliate against an employee for using FMLA leave.

You may be entitled to compensation for lost wages, benefits, and legal fees.

If an employer violates your FMLA rights – for example, if your employer denied protected leave, retaliated against you, or failed to reinstate you – you can:

– Contact the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division

– Speak with an employment attorney about filing a lawsuit.

An employee may be entitled to damages including:

– Lost wages,

– Lost benefits,

– Liquidated damages, and

– Attorneys’ fees and court costs.

An FMLA lawsuit must be filed within 2 years of the violation (or 3 years for willful violations).

Spouses working for the same employer may be limited to a combined 12 weeks of leave for certain FMLA events.

Spouses working for the same covered employer, may be limited to a combined 12 weeks of leave for the birth or placement of a child, or to care for a parent with a serious health condition.

However, each can take up to 12 weeks if they are caring for their own serious health condition or a child’s serious health condition.

Employers can require a fitness-for-duty certification before returning from leave related to your own serious health condition.

An employer can require the employee to provide a fitness-for-duty certification before returning to work if the leave was due to their own serious health condition — but only if the employer has a uniformly-applied policy for all similarly-situated employees.

Generally, no. Employers must designate leave as FMLA-qualifying if it meets the criteria.

An eligible employee is only entitled to 12 weeks of job-protected leave per 12-month period under the FMLA. An employer will typically run that down rather than allow an employee to bank it for later.

Yes, in addition to health insurance, other employment benefits must be maintained if they are for similar types of unpaid leave.

In addition to health insurance, other benefits like group life insurance, disability insurance, and pension benefits must continue on the same terms as if the employee was working, if that is the employer’s policy for similar types of leave.

Eligible employees can take qualifying exigency leave or military caregiver leave for certain military-related family events.

• Qualifying exigency leave: Qualifying exigency leave allows eligible employees to take up to 12 weeks leave to handle specific urgent needs when a spouse, child, or parent is on covered active duty or has been notified of an impending call to covered active duty status. Examples include attending military ceremonies, arranging childcare, addressing financial or legal matters, and spending time with a deployed family member on short leave.
• Military caregiver leave: Military caregiver leave allows eligible employees to take up to 26 workweeks of FMLA leave during a single 12-month period to care for a spouse, child, parent, or next of kin who is a covered servicemember with a serious injury or illness incurred or aggravated in the line of duty.

Additional leave may be required as a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), or employment may lawfully end depending on the circumstances.

Need Help? If you experience any issues applying for FMLA leave, or believe your rights have been violated, contact our office. We are here to help protect your workplace rights.

Bonus Tip: Keep copies of all paperwork and communications related to your FMLA leave. Documentation is key if any problems arise!