McDonald Trial Lawyers is a well-established employment law firm based in San Francisco, the East Bay and Los Angeles. We serve clients throughout all of California. We are dedicated to helping employees navigate the complex Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) process, including intermittent leave and leave to care for a family member. We also represent employees who have faced wrongful termination due to their use of FMLA.

Need to speak with an FMLA lawyer in California? Call our office at (415) 531-0421 or contact us online to schedule an initial consultation.

California FMLA is similar to the federal FMLA. It allows eligible employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave in 12 months for certain qualifying reasons. To be eligible, you must work for an employer with at least 50 employees who work within a 75-mile radius of your worksite, and you must have worked for the employer for at least 12 months and at least 1,250 hours in the 12 months prior to the start of your leave.

California FMLA, like the federal FMLA, allows you to take leave for several qualifying reasons.

These include:

While the reasons for taking California FMLA and FMLA are similar, there are some differences. For example, California FMLA allows you to take leave to care for a registered domestic partner, while the federal FMLA does not. Additionally, California FMLA allows you to take leave to care for a grandparent, grandchild, sibling, or parent-in-law, while the federal FMLA only allows you to take leave to care for a spouse, child, or parent.

To apply for FMLA in California, you must follow your employer’s usual and customary procedures for requesting leave. If your need for leave is foreseeable, you must give your employer at least 30 days’ notice. If your need for leave is not foreseeable, you must provide notice as soon as possible. You must also provide enough information for your employer to understand that you need leave under FMLA. You do not need to mention FMLA specifically. However, you must provide enough information for your employer to understand that you have a serious health condition or that you need to care for a family member with a serious health condition.

An employer has five days to approve FMLA leave in California. If an employer does not approve or deny leave within five days, the leave is automatically approved. However, if an employer requires certification to support the need for leave, the employer has five days to approve or deny leave after receiving the certification.