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 entitled the
Family and Medical Leave Act, often abbreviated
as the FMLA. If an employee does not have
rights to leave under the FMLA, then the
company's sick leave policy may be the only
rights an employee has.
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Medical Leave Act Attorney Carson City, Las
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There are many parts to the FMLA that is 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 very knowledgeable
with FMLA leave should be contacted - especially
since the FMLA 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
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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.
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 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 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.