About nikkiv

First of all,

Family Leave and Medical Act (1993): Protects employees who need time off work for family or medical reasons. It does not supersede State laws. The FMLA requires employers who have fifty or more employees to provide an employee with up to twelve weeks of family or medical leave during any twelve-month period.

       For most absences, the employee must demonstrate the health condition requires continued treatment by a health-care provider and includes a period of incapacity of more than three days.

       Employees suffering from certain chronic health conditions such as asthma and diabetes, as well as those who are pregnant, however, may take FMLA leave for their own incapacities that require absences of less than three days.

       The act does not apply to part-time or newly hired employees (those who have worked for less than one year).

       The employer cannot interfere with, restrain, or deny an employee from exercising or attempting to exercise his or her rights under the FLMA, nor can the employer discharge or discriminate against an employee for taking leave.

        The employer must continue the worker’s health-care coverage and guarantee employment in the same or a comparable position when the employee returns to work. In addition, the employer is required to immediately reinstate the employee after the leave, provided the worker can perform the essential functions of the position.

        **An important exception to the FMLA, however, allows the employer to avoiding reinstating a key employee—defined as an employee whose pay falls within the top 10% of the firm’s workforce.

            If reinstating a highly paid key employee would cause “substantial and grievous economic injury” to the employer, the employer is not required to restore the employee’s position after the leave. The employer must continue to maintain health benefits for the key employee during the leave, however. This exception is to be used only in specified and limited circumstances, and the employer must notify the employee of her or his status as a key employee and offer them an option of retuning to work immediately rather than risk losing her or his position.

          Violations of the FMLA—Remedies for violations of the FMLA include (1) damages for unpaid wages (or salary), lost benefits, denied compensation, and actual monetary losses (such as the cost of providing for care of the family member) up to an amount equivalent to the employee’s wages for twelve weeks; (2) job reinstatement; and (3) promotion, if a promotion had been denied. The successful plaintiff is entitled to court costs, attorney’s fees, and—in cases involving bad faith on the part of the employer—double damages. Supervisors may also be subject to personal liability, as employers, for violations of the act.

       An employer cannot be sanctioned for failing to provide notice under DOL regulations unless the employee was injured or prejudiced by the lack of notice.

      In which case, I believe that you can sue for your job back at the National Labor Relations Board located in your community or Web site. So, contact a employment lawyer to see if you can still get your job back.

Second, I survived college by shopping for textbooks at--Half.com-- by clicking on textbooks link. You can buy and sell textbooks cheap.

Third, check around my Web site for other answers that I may already posted for other people.

However, you should contact WIC and various charities in your community such as churches, the United Way by phone-- 211.

I hope this will calm your nerves a little.

Brighan