FMLA violation screener

General guidance only. FMLA eligibility and violation analysis depend on specific employment history, hours worked, and documentation. This tool identifies common violation patterns for discussion with an employment attorney - it doesn't calculate your exact eligibility. See our full disclaimer.

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An employment attorney evaluates your specific eligibility, the employer's conduct, and whether interference or retaliation occurred. FMLA claims have strict filing deadlines - don't wait. Free initial consultation in most areas.

Who is eligible for FMLA leave?

To be eligible, you must have worked for your employer for at least 12 months (not necessarily consecutive), worked at least 1,250 hours during the 12 months before the leave, and work at a location where the employer has 50 or more employees within 75 miles.

Eligible employees get up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave per 12-month period for: the birth or adoption of a child, a serious health condition that makes the employee unable to perform their job, caring for a spouse, child, or parent with a serious health condition, or certain military family circumstances. Military caregiver leave extends to 26 weeks in specific circumstances.

The employer must maintain your health benefits during FMLA leave as if you were still working, and must reinstate you to the same or an equivalent position when you return. If your leave situation also involves a disability accommodation question, check the ADA accommodation rights tool, since FMLA and ADA rights frequently overlap and offer different protections.

What counts as FMLA "interference"?

Interference covers any action that denies, restrains, or discourages an eligible employee from exercising their FMLA rights. This includes: outright denying a valid leave request, failing to properly notify employees of their FMLA rights, discouraging someone from taking leave through pressure or guilt, manipulating hours or schedules to prevent an employee from reaching eligibility thresholds, or failing to reinstate an employee to an equivalent position after leave.

Interference claims don't require proof of the employer's intent to discriminate - simply denying or interfering with a legitimate FMLA right is enough, regardless of the employer's stated reason or good faith belief that a denial was justified.

What counts as FMLA "retaliation"?

Retaliation involves punishing an employee for exercising or attempting to exercise FMLA rights - termination, demotion, pay cuts, negative performance reviews, exclusion from projects, or other adverse treatment that follows a leave request or the leave itself.

Unlike interference, retaliation claims typically require showing the employer's action was motivated by the employee's FMLA leave, which is often proven through timing (adverse action shortly after leave), inconsistent treatment compared to similarly situated employees who didn't take leave, or a sudden shift in performance evaluations after years of positive reviews. If your termination followed FMLA leave, also review the wrongful termination screener to check for overlapping legal theories.

Frequently asked questions

Not for taking the leave itself, but FMLA doesn't provide absolute job protection - an employer can terminate an employee on leave for reasons unrelated to the leave, such as a legitimate layoff that would have happened regardless, or documented misconduct discovered during the leave period. The critical question is whether the employer can prove the termination would have occurred even if the employee hadn't taken leave. If the timing is suspicious, the stated reason seems pretextual, or similarly situated employees who didn't take leave weren't terminated for the same conduct, this supports an interference or retaliation claim. Document everything if you're terminated during or shortly after FMLA leave.

Not necessarily your exact position, but an "equivalent" one - same pay, benefits, working conditions, and substantially similar duties and responsibilities. The employer can't return you to a demoted role, a different shift with worse conditions, or a position with reduced authority, even if the pay is technically the same. If your new role after FMLA leave has different or lesser responsibilities, worse hours, or was clearly created to sideline you, this may violate the reinstatement requirement. Compare your pre-leave and post-leave job descriptions and responsibilities carefully.

Yes, when medically necessary - intermittent leave allows you to take FMLA leave in separate blocks of time for a single qualifying reason, such as periodic medical treatments or flare-ups of a chronic condition. Employers can require reasonable medical certification supporting the need for intermittent leave and can require periodic recertification. A common source of disputes is employers discouraging or penalizing intermittent leave use through negative comments, extra scrutiny, or attendance policies that count FMLA-protected absences against employees - all of which can constitute interference.

Request a written explanation of the specific eligibility criterion the employer says you fail to meet - the 12-month employment requirement, the 1,250-hour threshold, or the 50-employees-within-75-miles requirement. Each of these has specific calculation rules that employers sometimes get wrong, particularly the hours worked calculation, which includes all hours actually worked (not just scheduled hours) and can be miscalculated if the employer excludes overtime or doesn't properly track hours. If you believe the employer's eligibility determination is incorrect, request your own time and attendance records to verify the calculation independently.

FMLA claims generally must be filed within 2 years of the violation, extended to 3 years if the violation was "willful" (meaning the employer knew or showed reckless disregard for whether its conduct violated the FMLA). This is different from the shorter EEOC deadlines that apply to discrimination claims, since FMLA claims are typically filed directly in federal court or with the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division rather than through the EEOC charge process. Don't assume EEOC deadlines apply - confirm the correct FMLA-specific deadline with an employment attorney.