The California Family Rights Act (CFRA) and the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provide eligible employees with a leave of absence from work for up to 12 weeks, with a guarantee of reinstatement to the same or a comparable job upon returning to work.

Employee Eligibility

With a few exceptions, an employee is eligible for a leave of absence of up to 12 weeks, with guaranteed reinstatement, if the employee:

• Has been employed by the employer for at least 12 months;
• Has been employed for at least 1,250 hours during the 12 month period immediately preceding the leave; and,
• Is employed at a work site that employs 50 or more employees either at the worksite or within 75 miles of the worksite.

Reason for Leave of Absence

If an employee meets these requirements, then he or she must be granted a leave of absence for any of several reasons specified by law, such as when the employee is incapacitated due to a "serious health condition" that renders the employee unable to perform the essential functions of his or her job. Other reasons requiring a leave of absence include the birth of a child and attending to the serious health condition of the employee's spouse, domestic partner, child, or parent.

An employee who is the spouse, child, parent, or next of kin of an ill or injured military service member may take up to 26 weeks of federal FMLA leave to care for the service member.

Remedies for violations of the family leave laws include:

reinstatement	back pay
front pay	damages for emotional distress
punitive damages	attorney fees & costs of litigation

We counsel and support employees who may require reasonable accommodations for disabilities and/or family and medical leave, and have achieved successful monetary settlements for employees who were terminated in violation of those rights.