Are You Entitled to Job-Protected Family Medical Leave?

There are times when your own health, the health of someone in your family, or your need to care for a newborn child must come before your job. Enter the job protection provided by the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). The FMLA allows qualifying employees to take unpaid leave to care for their own serious health condition or the serious health condition of a close family member or to tend to the needs of the employee’s newborn baby without fear of losing their job.

Sadly, your employer might not understand or respect your rights under the FMLA. Instead, your employer might unlawfully discourage you from taking FMLA leave or even punish you for having taken it. If that happens to you, contact the Connecticut FMLA lawyers at Garrison, Levin-Epstein, Fitzgerald & Pirrotti, P.C.

What Are the Federal FMLA and the Connecticut FMLA, and How Do They Differ?

Both federal and state Family Medical Leave Act laws protect employees who need or want to take time off from work for qualifying medical or family reasons.

The federal Family and Medical Leave Act requires employers with 50 or more employees to provide certain workers – those who have been employed by the company for at least 12 months and who have worked at least 1,250 hours for that employer in the 12 months preceding the leave – with 12 weeks of unpaid leave for such reasons and to allow them to return to their job when that leave is completed. Since it was signed into law in 1993, the FMLA has helped thousands of American workers balance their jobs with their family obligations.

Connecticut has its own version of the FMLA and, in critical respects, its coverage is much broader than its federal counterpart. For example, the Connecticut FMLA applies to almost every employer and employee in Connecticut (with certain limited exceptions). And it has no minimum hours requirement; the employee need only have worked for the employer for three months immediately preceding the leave.

If you work in Connecticut, you may be covered by both the federal FMLA and the Connecticut FMLA, but even if you are not covered by the federal FMLA, you may very well be covered by its more expansive Connecticut counterpart. Once coverage is established, both the federal and state laws provide similar protection.

Are You Eligible for Job-Protected Leave?

Both the federal FMLA and the Connecticut FMLA allow eligible employees to take up to 12 weeks of leave in a 12-month period. Employees may also receive an additional two weeks of leave for incapacitation during pregnancy, and military caregivers may take up to 16 weeks of leave.

Importantly, under both federal and Connecticut law, leave does not need to be consecutive. Rather, your use of job-protected leave can be “intermittent.” This means you can spread your 12 weeks of leave out over the 12-month period, taking the leave only when you need it. Intermittent leave can be especially useful in situations where the employee is able to work but requires time off from work each day or week. Examples of such situations include taking a seriously ill parent or child to doctor’s appointments or tending to your own serious health condition which may require one or more hours of daily or weekly treatment.

While an employee is out on FMLA or CT FMLA leave, the employer must continue to provide health insurance on the same terms as when the employee was working. Then, when the employee returns from FMLA leave, the employer must return the employee to the same position, or, if not available, an equivalent position. An equivalent position must be virtually identical to the employee’s original job in terms of pay, benefits, and other working conditions.

What Medical Conditions Qualify for FMLA Leave?

Under both the federal FMLA and the CT FMLA, employees may qualify for leave for several conditions and situations, including:

Serious Health Condition: This includes any illness, injury, impairment, or physical or mental condition that involves inpatient care or continuing treatment by a healthcare provider.
Parental Leave: For the birth of a child or placement of a child for adoption or foster care.
Family Care: To care for a close family member with a serious health condition: a spouse, child, or parent, and under the CT FMLA, also a grandparent, grandchild, or, even more broadly, any “individual related to the employee by blood or affinity whose close association the employee shows to be the equivalent of those family relationships (significant personal bond).”
Pregnancy: Any period of incapacity due to pregnancy, prenatal medical care, or childbirth.
Military Family Leave: For certain qualifying emergencies related to a family member’s military service, or to care for a covered service member with a serious injury or illness.

It’s always a good idea to check the latest state guidelines or consult with a legal professional to ensure your particular situation qualifies for leave under the CT FMLA.

How Employers Violate the FMLA

Employers can violate the FMLA in a variety of ways. Some violations are quite technical. For example, employers may not be aware that they are required to provide employees with certain notices of their FMLA rights. If the employer fails to provide the requisite notices, that is an FMLA violation.

Employers also violate the FMLA by failing to honor employees’ requests for leave. You do not need to use the term “FMLA” to request leave. There are no magic words that trigger this protection. Instead, FMLA rights kick in when an eligible employee requests time off for a qualified purpose.

In fact, if the employer knows that the employee is eligible for FMLA leave – even if that employee has not specifically requested any leave – the employer must provide information about the FMLA. The employer’s failure to do so is a violation of the law.

Of course, employers also violate the FMLA by discouraging an employee from taking FMLA leave (referred to as FMLA interference) and/or treating the employee worse (including terminating the employee) for taking the leave (referred to as FMLA retaliation). One example of FMLA interference might be terminating the employee just before she is about to take FMLA leave. A more subtle example might be imposing unrealistic deadlines on the employee who needs to take FMLA leave so that the employee is forced to choose between meeting those deadlines and taking their leave. Examples of FMLA retaliation abound. In essence, any act by the employer that might have dissuaded a reasonable employee from taking FMLA leave falls into the retaliation bucket. They include giving the employee an unmerited poor performance review at the first opportunity following the leave, subjecting the employee to unwarranted discipline, denying the employee a career-building opportunity (such as attending an important conference or excluding the employee from a key project to which she otherwise would be privy), and of course, terminating the employee.

DeAngelo v. Yellowbook

FMLA violations can be more sinister. For example, in the case of DeAngelo v. Yellowbook, Garrison, Levin-Epstein, Fitzgerald & Pirrotti represented a salesman who was battling cancer. Yellowbook, Inc. terminated our client after learning that he was receiving treatment for cancer and had requested leave under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act. The justification the company provided was that he violated a company policy, but as we argued, this policy was routinely ignored by others and Yellowbook had never before terminated any employee for violating it. The Court found that we had provided sufficient evidence from which a jury could infer that the company’s reliance on this policy violation was a pretext for what we alleged were its real reasons: disability discrimination and FMLA interference and retaliation.

How Our Connecticut FMLA Lawyers Can Help

If you believe that you are entitled to benefits offered by the federal and/or Connecticut Family and Medical Leave Act, and your employer has either interfered with your legal rights or retaliated against you for exercising them, it’s time to take action.

We have been recognized by our peers and numerous legal organizations for our skills and track record. We work as a team to give you the best possible representation. We have taken on almost every large employer in the State of Connecticut, and we are not afraid to stand up for you.

If your Connecticut employer is violating your FMLA rights, please contact Garrison, Levin-Epstein, Fitzgerald & Pirrotti now for a confidential evaluation of your case.