Think you’re protected when you need leave? Think again! Plaintiff magazine

We receive hundreds of calls every month from people who believe their rights have been violated and often have the unhappy job of having to explain to them why they are not actually protected under the law. Many of these people have been treated extremely unfairly, but fall just outside the parameters of the law. This is particularly true in the parentalleave context. Approximately 68 percent of children in the United States are part of families in which both parents work,1 so parental leave is something that affects most American families. However, in many cases, employers are not legally obligated to provide parents with any time off. For example, the California Family Rights Act (CFRA) only applies to those working for employers with 50 or more employees and to those who have been with the company for at least 12 months, so if you are employee number 45, or have worked at the company for only 11 months, you are not protected. One such call came to our firm recently, from a father who worked for an employer that was large enough to fall under CFRA, but he had worked at the company for just under a year so he didn’t qualify for CFRA protection. His wife had a baby and he requested time off to bond with and help care for his new baby. The company initially approved his request, but then terminated his employment upon his return for a vague, unsubstantiated reason (apparently, he was not a “cultural fit” despite his 11 months of employment without incident). The potential client unfortunately had no legal protection, other than perhaps a creative argument for breach of contract based on the employer’s approval of his leave request. We have had countless similar calls – from fathers who have no legal right to take time off for the birth of their babies, from mothers who need time off to Think you’re protected when you need leave? Think again! Parental-leave laws in California aren’t terrible, but they could be a lot better. An overview of current family-leave law