FMLA question?

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LongingForLight

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I know that to qualify for FMLA, you need to have worked 12 months for your employer (and other stuff). Do those 12 months have to be continuous, or can you have stopped working for that employer to do another job, and then returned to your current employer for a total of over 12 months.

I thought I wasn’t eligible for FMLA because I started this position just last March, and my baby will be due in January - just 10 months in. However, I have worked for this company twice before - 11.5 months one time, and 8 months the other, for a total of around 20 months so far, and about 27 months total by the time my baby is born. I will probably have worked 1,250 hours this year for the employer when my baby is born and will meet the other FMLA requirements. Could I be eligible? Has anyone here been in this situation?
 
Drat. It sounds like the answer in my case is “no”. I was so hoping I might at least have a guaranteed job 😦

Next stop: Washington state disability laws. I might be able to get some time off with a guaranteed job through those.
 
Wait, I re-read that again . . . let me post it.
(b) The 12 months an employee must have been employed by the
employer need not be consecutive months, provided
(1) Subject to the exceptions provided in paragraph (b)(2) of this
section, employment periods prior to a break in service of seven years
or more need not be counted in determining whether the employee has
been employed by the employer for at least 12 months.
Click to expand...
This was all within the last 7 years, so I guess it would be counted?

Okay, can someone who isn’t fuzzy-headed from pregnancy harmones and being tired read this and see if they come to the same conclusion? I worked from June 2005 to January, 2006 and from November, 2006 to November, 2007 with this company, and have beenw ith them again from March 16, 2009 until now.
 
“LforL” I’m sorry you’re going through this, right now. :console: Last thing you need, this close to childbirth is 10 miles of red tape. I’ll keep you in my prayers.

That said, have you spoken to your Human Resources Dept. or H.R. person? Maybe I’m hopelessly “behind the times”… but I had thought that Maternity Leave was something separate from FMLA leave. FMLA opened the doors for expectant fathers to take leave… or for adult children to care for elderly parents… (I took advantage of FMLA twice, on my last job… for this reason).

I wish I had a better response, dear soul. I’m sorry you’re going through this. Hope someone with better answers will reply. God bless you.
 
So, I’m not really all that close - I’m only at week 7 🙂 Just trying to move obstacles before I do hit them. Last time I quit work at 6 months because of pregnancy disability, and it dumped us onto a rocky financial road. This time, I want to be 100% sure I’ve exhausted every option to keep my job and support my family.

I don’t trust our HR. I’ll talk to them when my due-date gets closer, but I want to know my rights before I talk to them. I doubt they deal with many pregnant women in this field (contract technical work).

I don’t think there is any such thing as “maternity leave” seperate from FMLA that employers are legally required to provide. Some companies do provide additional maternity leave, sometimes even paid - but not mine. FMLA is the only guaranteed maternity leave for many women - and many don’t even get that.
 
Check with someone in your state’s unemployment/workforce office. Although FMLA is a federal law, it interacts with state laws and therefore is applied differently in different states. They deal with this all the time and probably even have a brochure or website so you can make sure you are getting accurate and legal information.

For example, I had my last child while living and working in NJ. At that time, in NJ, any time you were on maternity disability (usually 2 weeks before due date to 6 weeks after birth) did not “count” as using FMLA time. So I had 12 weeks that started **after **my doctor ok’d me to go back to work - unpaid but with FMLA protection - a total of 20 weeks after the baby was born (I had 2 extra weeks of disability due to C-section). In other states (most of them) it runs concurrent so if you take off two weeks before your due date and deliver “on time” you have only 10 weeks after the birth. Big difference!

I noticed that you said your work was “contract technical work”. Remember that FMLA only gives you the same job guarantee you would have if you were still working. Contract employees often have little promise of continued work and that wouldn’t change just because of FMLA leave.

Good luck!
 
Look at this positively: You haven’t worked for them longer than a year at a time anyway. You have months to sell yourself and help assure the chance to be re-hired, even if you do not qualify for the act. If you think they are not of a mind to re-hire you for whatever reason, at least you have time to prepare for another job. True, this is not the best of times for such a challenge, but it is better than being out of a job now facing these problems.
 
pnewton said:
Look at this positively: You haven’t worked for them longer than a year at a time anyway. You have months to sell yourself and help assure the chance to be re-hired, even if you do not qualify for the act. If you think they are not of a mind to re-hire you for whatever reason, at least you have time to prepare for another job. True, this is not the best of times for such a challenge, but it is better than being out of a job now facing these problems.
Click to expand...
Sadly, I’m the sole income for my family. DH is looking for work, but no guarantees since he’s been looking for months already - and it’s dubious he’ll earn enough to cover expenses, but hopefully enough to get us through the gap in my employment. We’re already deep in debt from my last stint of joblessness and a necessary roof replacement. I really can’t afford months off. In fact, the whole FMLA question may be almost moot - I may only be able to afford days off anyways. But I’d really like to have the option of taking weeks off instead. The idea of handing over my less-than-one-week baby, even to DH’s care, honestly chills me.

Okay, harmones are kicking in. I need to move on and quit thinking about the worst-case scenarios. DH is likely to find a job in the next 7 seven months, this is probably not going to be that bad.
 
Corki said:
Check with someone in your state’s unemployment/workforce office. Although FMLA is a federal law, it interacts with state laws and therefore is applied differently in different states. They deal with this all the time and probably even have a brochure or website so you can make sure you are getting accurate and legal information.
Click to expand...
WA state has FLA, which is not concurrent to disability but is concurrent with FMLA. It’s only pertinent for the situation where your FMLA leave was used up concurrent with disability - then you still have FLA leave left. So this is good!
Corki said:
I noticed that you said your work was “contract technical work”. Remember that FMLA only gives you the same job guarantee you would have if you were still working. Contract employees often have little promise of continued work and that wouldn’t change just because of FMLA leave.
Click to expand...
I expect to have my contract renewed until March 15th, 2010 at the six-month point. So I should have months of work left. I should mention that I’m only expecting to be able to take a few weeks off, at best. So as long as I have more than a few weeks left, I will have a job to return to. The key thing is, if I can return to my job then I can get unemployment when it ends.
 
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