The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is an important federal law. For decades, the FMLA has protected the rights of workers to keep their jobs when they must miss a large amount of work. Under the FMLA, workers can take leave for their own medical challenges or after the birth of a child.
The FMLA can also protect an employee’s position at a company if they need to serve as a medical caregiver for a member of their immediate family. In some cases, the career of the family member who requires medical support can actually affect the rights of the worker seeking unpaid leave to provide that support.
What impact can a relative’s career have on unpaid leave rights?
The FMLA has specific limitations
The employee requesting leave usually needs at least a 12-month work history with their employer. There also need to be enough other employees working nearby for the company to handle their unpaid leave request.
The worker also has a set limit to how much time away from work they can request. Regardless of how many qualifying circumstances they experience in one year, the worker is subject to the same limit. In most cases, the FMLA only protects workers for up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave.
However, there is one notable exception to that rule. When the worker requires leave to provide medical support for a family member who served in the military, the amount of leave they can take increases. Individuals providing medical support to a spouse, parent or child with medical challenges related to military service may be eligible for up to 26 weeks of unpaid leave.
That is approximately half a year, and it is more than double the amount of leave granted in most other circumstances. When those who serve in the military end up hurt seriously enough to require medical support from others, their loved ones may be eligible for more leave under the FMLA than usual.
Learning about the basic rules that govern FMLA leave requests can help people better support their loved ones in difficult situations. Workers unfairly denied leave or facing retaliation after a leave request may need help holding their employers accountable for a violation of their rights.