Family Leave Violations

The California Family Rights Act requires private and public employers with 50 or more employees in a 75-mile radius to grant an unpaid family leave of up to 12 weeks annually to eligible employees. To be eligible to take such leave the employee must have worked for the employer for at least one year and must have worked for at least 1,250 hours during the year before the leave.

The Family Medical Leave Act ("FMLA") allows eligible employees of a covered employer to take unpaid leave or to substitute appropriate paid leave for up to 12 workweeks in any 12 months with the assurance of job restoration. An employee is entitled to FMLA leave for the birth or care of a newborn or newly adopted child, or for the care of a close family member with a serious health condition or the employee's own serious health condition. If an employer retaliates or takes an adverse employment action because of an employee's exercise of his or right to family leave it is a violation of the California Family Rights Act.

An eligible employee is entitled to 12 workweeks of unpaid leave during any 12-month period for any one or more of the following reasons:

• To give birth or to care for an infant son or daughter.
• To care for a child placed with the employee for adoption or foster care.
• To care for the employee's spouse, son, daughter, or parent who has a serious health condition.
  
• To address the employee's serious health condition making the employee unable to perform his or her job.

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