Job Protection for Family and Medical Leave

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provides job protection for up to 12 weeks for bonding with a new child, caring for yourself or an eligible family member with a serious health condition, or attending to military-related events. To be eligible for FMLA, you must:

• Have worked for the same employer for at least 12 months (they need not be consecutive, though breaks of seven years or more generally do not count).
• Have worked at least 1,250 hours for that employer within the last 12 months.
• Work at a location where the employer has 50 or more employees within 75 miles.

That third condition is the one that disqualifies people, and it is usually omitted. FMLA does not apply to small employers at all — so the physician in a nine-person practice, the partner at a boutique firm, and anyone employing household staff are outside it entirely. Job protection in those situations comes from state law if anywhere, and the leave is unpaid in every case: FMLA protects the job, not the income. The income comes from the STD/LTD stack above.

FMLA may run concurrently with other state laws and leave policies. Refer to U.S. Department of Labor’s FMLA guidelines for details.

The California Family Rights Act (CFRA) offers job protection for up to 12 weeks for bonding with a new child, caring for your own serious medical condition or that of an eligible family member, or attending to military-related events. CFRA often runs concurrently with other leave policies, such as Maternity Leave, Baby Bonding Leave, and Short-term Disability.