Have you told your employer that you will need FMLA leave, and all of a sudden your employer is treating you differently or making your job impossible to do? Have you been terminated while you were out on FMLA leave? Does is feel like your employer is forcing you to quit? Are you having trouble getting your FMLA leave approved? Do you think you have been retaliated against for requesting or taking FMLA leave?
The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and Wisconsin Family and Medical Leave Act (WFMLA) prohibit covered employers from interfering with restraining, or denying the exercise of (or attempts to exercise) an employee’s rights under the FMLA. “Interference” can include:
- Transferring an employee from one worksite to another for the purpose of reducing worksites, or to keep worksites, below the threshold for employee eligibility under the FMLA;
- Changing the essential functions of an employee’s job in order to preclude the employee from taking FMLA leave;
- Reducing an employee’s work hours in order to avoid employee eligibility; or
- Terminating or otherwise discriminating against an employee to avoid the employee’s future use of FMLA leave.
Employers cannot discriminate or retaliate against an employee or prospective employee for having exercised or attempted to exercise FMLA rights.
An employer also cannot terminate or in any other way discriminating against any person (whether or not an employee) for opposing or complaining about any unlawful practice under the FMLA, or for filing an FMLA complaint, giving (or about to give) information relating to the FMLA, or testifying in a proceeding under the FMLA.
An employer may be liable for compensation and benefits lost, attorneys’ fees, other actual monetary losses sustained as a direct result of its violation of the FMLA, and for appropriate equitable or other relief, including employment, reinstatement, promotion, or any other relief tailored to the harm suffered.