Family Medical Leave Category Archives — New Jersey Employment Lawyer Blog Published by New Jersey Employment Attorneys

Published on: April 21, 2023

How an Employer’s Internal Investigation May Form the Basis of an Employee’s Winning Retaliation Claim

Workers who raise complaints of discrimination face many on-the-job risks, including retaliatory termination. Sometimes, the retaliatory motive may be evident in the employer’s stated (bogus) reason for termination. Other times, the stated reason may be legitimate but the investigation that preceded it may have been the product of retaliatory motivations. In either circumstance, your employer’s “retaliatory animus” may be enough to give you a winning retaliation case. If you think you’ve been the victim of that kind of illegal employment practice, don’t wait to contact a knowledgeable New Jersey workplace retaliation lawyer to discuss your situation.

Here’s an example of what we mean. J.C. was a Black man who worked for a steel fabricator in southeast Pennsylvania. The employee suffered from herniated discs and arthritis in his back, a disability that caused him to pursue leave from work under the Family Medical Leave Act.

The employer fired the man in the summer of 2019. It claimed that it had found proof on his cell phone that he’d been soliciting sex workers while on company time and company property. The fired employee contended that the company fired him in retaliation for his complaints of race discrimination and disability discrimination, as well as using FMLA leave.

Published on: May 31, 2022

A North Jersey Employer Pays Its Former Marketing Director $195K After the AG Accused it of Discrimination, Retaliation, and Denial of Family Leave

by Phillips & Associates

Adding to your family as a result of a pregnancy should be a joyful time. However, for too many parents, especially new mothers, having a baby and caring for that new child is fraught with difficulties at work. These difficulties may include receiving less than all the family leave the law allows, returning to a reduced role after family leave ends, a failure to accommodate breastfeeding, or even termination. All of these things are potentially violations of state and/or federal law so, if any of them have happened to you, do not delay in contacting a knowledgeable New Jersey family leave lawyer.

Earlier this year, a new development occurred in a case we blogged about two years ago. Back in 2020, the Attorney General’s Office had initiated proceedings against a Hudson County home goods company on the basis of discrimination and retaliation.

To recap the case, the worker was a marketing director who became pregnant in 2017. In early 2018, she notified her employer that she planned to take several months off, using federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) leave to recover from giving birth and New Jersey Family Leave Act (NJFLA) leave to care for her new baby.

Published on: August 16, 2021

A Bus Driver Secures a Settlement Payout After His New Jersey-Based Employer Fired Him for Leaving to Care for His Dying Father

by Phillips & Associates

The current resurgence in COVID-19 cases is a reminder of many things, not the least of which is the importance of health, especially the health of our closest loved ones. Taking care of a seriously ill or dying family member should not be an act that costs you your job and, in New Jersey, we have the Family Leave Act to protect workers. If you have been fired or otherwise punished at work for taking leave to care for a seriously ailing loved one, your employer may have violated the law. If that happens to you, do not delay in reaching out to an experienced New Jersey family leave lawyer to learn more about your legal options.

As an illustration of what a violation might look like, there’s the FLA case of a driver working for a Hoboken-based bus line company. That driver was also the son of a man who had terminal leukemia. On two occasions, the driver, armed with a medical certificate issued by the father’s doctor, took intermittent leave to tend to his dying father.

In December 2017, he sought additional leave and, in response, the employer asked for a new medical certificate. The driver indicated that he could not do that “because the gravity of his father’s deteriorating condition was still being assessed.” According to the driver, he planned to provide the paperwork the employer sought once the father’s medical team created a new treatment plan.

Published on: September 9, 2020

Taking on a New Jersey Employer Who Has Retaliated Against You For Taking Family Leave and Discriminated Against You For Breastfeeding

by Phillips & Associates

As the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office clearly stated in a recent press release, “No parent should be forced to choose between their job and caring for or breastfeeding their child… New Jersey law protects a parent’s right to take leave to care for a newborn child and to return to the same position after leave. It also protects a parent’s right to breastfeed a child.” As an expectant parent, you know that those first weeks and months are something that you can never experience again with that child, and that the bonding that takes place during those early months is vitally important to your child. When you suffer workplace harm because you took leave following your delivery, or because you’re breastfeeding your baby, that’s against the law. Take action by contacting an experienced New Jersey employment attorney right away.

One way you can help yourself when you are expecting a child is by knowing your rights. A recent case that was reported by the Hudson Reporter is a good illustration of how helpful knowing your rights when it comes to family leave can be.

Here in New Jersey, you are entitled to take up to 12 weeks of leave in a 12-month period (if you’ve worked at least 1,250 hours during the last 12 months) under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). The New Jersey Family Leave Act (NJFLA) gives you up to 12 weeks of leave in a 24-month period if you’ve worked at least 1,000 hours in the previous 12 months.

Published on: January 28, 2020

Winning Your Disability Discrimination Case in New Jersey, Even if Your Employer Began Contemplating Firing You Before Learning of Your Disability

by Phillips & Associates

When it comes to winning a disability discrimination case, timing can often be an extremely important piece of the puzzle. For example, if you have proof that your employer took an adverse action against you very shortly after you requested a reasonable accommodation for your disability, that bit of “timing” evidence can be a major positive for your case. On the other hand, if your employer has proof that it contemplated firing you before it ever became aware of your disability, that evidence potentially can weaken your case. Note that it just weakens your case… it doesn’t necessarily destroy your case. Timing is just one piece of the puzzle among many and, like any other negative fact, it can be overcome. Your skilled New Jersey disability discrimination attorney can help you map out a possible pathway to success, even when some of the pieces of your case (like timing) seem to work against you.

As an example of what we mean, there’s the case of F.C., who worked for a healthcare company. In 2015, the employer began considering replacing F.C. A few months later, the employee developed health problems that eventually required heart surgery to address.

Three weeks after F.C. returned from his post-surgery leave, the employer fired him. The employee sued in federal court, alleging that the termination violated the ADA and the FMLA. The employer had some proof on its side. For one thing, the evidence showed that the employer first began considering firing F.C. before it even knew F.C. had a disability or would need a medical leave of absence from work. That seemed to point toward the firing as being legitimate and non-discriminatory.

Published on: March 15, 2019

A New Law Means More Eligibility and More Benefits for New Jersey Workers Who Need to Take Paid Family Leave

by Phillips & Associates

When New Jersey first enacted its paid family leave program in 2009, it was the second state in the country to do so, following only California. As the program approached a decade in existence, problems remained. Some lawmakers believed that too many families were still unable to take needed family leave because they could not afford it, meaning that the program was failing to address the problem it was designed to alleviate.

To address that issue, New Jersey’s lawmakers have again taken action. nj.com reported that, back in mid-February, Gov. Phil Murphy signed into law an important new bill regarding paid family leave in New Jersey. The new legislation now makes the state’s paid leave law one of the most generous in the country. The new law will be a very helpful one for many workers, allowing them to avoid a terrible situation in which they must choose between keeping their jobs and making ends meet or spending time caring for a new baby or ailing loved one. As always, if you are unsure about your rights or entitlement to benefits under New Jersey law, or believe that your employer has violated the law, reach out right away to retain the services of a knowledgeable New Jersey employment attorney.

The expansion created by the new law helps in two vital ways, as it extends the amount of time during which workers can be on paid leave and also increases the portion of their regular income that they receive. Under the new law, eligible caregivers or new parents may receive as much as 12 weeks of family leave benefits, an increase from six weeks under the old law. The old law said that an employee on family leave would receive 2/3 of his/her regular income; under the new law, it’s 80%. The original program capped the maximum weekly benefit at $650; under the expanded program, that figure will rise to $860, according to the nj.com report.

Published on: November 22, 2017

Know Before You Sign: Settling Your Workers’ Compensation Claim Without Defeating Your Right to Sue Under the FMLA

by Phillips & Associates

Many employment cases may involve multiple different types of harm that are suffered as a result of different transgressions committed against you. Your employer, for example, may have violated the Family and Medical Leave Act or anti-discrimination laws around the same time that you suffered an injury potentially covered by workers’ compensation. Whenever your case involves multiple claims, it could make sense to settle some and pursue others. If you do, it is vital to understand fully exactly what you are releasing (in other words, giving up) as part of any settlement agreement you sign. An experienced New Jersey employment attorney can help you understand your rights and your options when this type of scenario arises.

One example in which this did happen was the case of Craig. Craig was like thousands of people across the country who have gotten hurt while on the job. He returned to work for a few days after the injury but eventually needed an extra week off to heal. After that week off, the injured market worker returned to work. Just two weeks after he returned to work, the market fired the man.

Craig eventually brought a lawsuit that accused the employer of violating the FMLA. The FMLA gives employees who need to take leave from work certain rights. Among the obligations that the FMLA imposes on employers is to notify an employee who takes leave of his rights under the FMLA statute. The man’s lawsuit contended that the market never informed him of his rights. The employer also allegedly broke the law “by not designating his leave as FMLA protected.”