Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) — Complete Guide for PA and NJ Employees
The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provides eligible employees with up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per year for qualifying medical and family reasons. It applies to employers with 50 or more employees within 75 miles. If your employer denied your FMLA leave, terminated you during or after leave, or retaliated against you for requesting leave, the FMLA provides legal remedies including lost wages and liquidated damages.
Eligibility Requirements
You must have worked for your employer for at least 12 months (not necessarily consecutive), worked at least 1,250 hours in the 12 months before your leave request, and work at a location where the employer has 50+ employees within 75 miles.
Qualifying Reasons for Leave
Birth or placement of a child for adoption or foster care, caring for a spouse, child, or parent with a serious health condition, your own serious health condition that makes you unable to perform your essential job functions, and qualifying exigencies related to a family member’s military service. A separate provision provides up to 26 weeks of leave per year to care for a covered servicemember with a serious injury or illness.
Employer Obligations
Your employer must maintain your health insurance during FMLA leave, restore you to the same or equivalent position upon return, not count FMLA absences against you under attendance policies, and not retaliate against you for requesting or taking leave. Learn about FMLA violations in Philadelphia.
FMLA Violations
Interference: Denying eligible leave, discouraging leave requests, failing to notify you of your FMLA rights, or counting protected absences against you. Retaliation: Termination, demotion, or other adverse action because you requested or used FMLA leave. Failure to restore: Not returning you to the same or equivalent position after leave.
Damages
Lost wages and benefits (back pay and front pay), liquidated damages equal to the lost wages (doubling recovery unless the employer proves good faith), attorney’s fees and costs, and equitable relief including reinstatement. The FMLA has a 2-year statute of limitations (3 years for willful violations).
FMLA and Other Leave Laws
The FMLA intersects with the ADA (additional leave as a reasonable accommodation), Philadelphia’s Promoting Healthy Families and Workplaces Ordinance (paid sick leave), New Jersey’s Family Leave Act (covers employers with 30+ employees), and New Jersey’s SAFE Act (for domestic violence victims). An employment lawyer evaluates all applicable leave protections to identify every available claim.
The Lacy Employment Law Firm handles FMLA cases on contingency across Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and New Jersey. Call (215) 515-5924 for a free consultation.
