The California Family Rights Act (CFRA) allows most Californians to take family care leave or medical leave without facing punitive measures or fear of losing their job. It’s one of many laws that ensure employees can take care of themselves and their families when they need to without worrying about retaliation.
Unfortunately, there are many California employers that ignore the CFRA or don’t understand its protections. As a result, employees are often terminated for requesting or taking leave or subjected to harassment and retaliation upon returning. If these circumstances sound familiar, you can count on our San Francisco medical leave interference and discrimination attorney to provide you with the quality legal counsel you deserve.
The CFRA is similar to the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Both Acts give eligible employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid job-protected medical leave each year to attend to their own serious health condition, care for a newborn or foster child, or care for a family member with a serious medical condition. One substantial difference between the two is that FMLA doesn’t allow employees protection if they take time off to care for a registered domestic partner, but thankfully for California workers, CFRA does.
“Job-protected leave” means that you must be reinstated to the same position or a comparable one when you return from leave. A “comparable position” is employment in a position virtually identical to the employee’s original position in terms of pay, benefits, and working conditions, including location and shift/work schedule.
It must involve the same or substantially similar duties and responsibilities, which must entail substantially equivalent skill, effort, responsibility, and authority. Only under very limited circumstances can an employer refuse to honor the reinstatement guarantee.
To be eligible for the CFRA your employer must employ more than 5 employees in the United States and you must have worked for the employer for more than 12 months, and at least 1250 hours in the 12 months before your requested leave begins.
Under the CFRA, employers are prohibited from discriminating against or terminating employees in retaliation for exercising their rights to request or take CFRA leave. Employers are also forbidden from interfering with, restraining, or denying an employee’s exercise of their CFRA rights.
To prove a claim for CFRA interference or discrimination, an employee must show that:
To establish a claim for CFRA retaliation, an employee must prove that:
Although these claims can be difficult to prove, you can significantly improve your chances of successfully obtaining compensation by working with a skilled San Francisco medical leave interference and discrimination lawyer.
If you have been subjected to discrimination or retaliation, you need a fierce advocate who will stand up for your rights. An experienced San Francisco medical leave interference and discrimination lawyer from the Law Office of Jeannette A. Vaccaro can help. Contact us today to learn more about your rights.
Jeannette is passionate about employee rights. She fights to shed light on injustices and to help her clients move beyond troubling times. Contact Jeannette today for a free case evaluation.
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Arbitration award in race harassment and discrimination suit.
Arbitration award obtained on behalf of employee terminated on account of his national origin.
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Settlement for employee that was retaliated against on account of reporting discrimination.
Settlement for employee discriminated against on account of her gender and age.
Pre-litigation settlement for victim of race & national origin discrimination.
Settlement negotiated in a gender discrimination case.