You may feel abundantly grateful that your employer has agreed to give you the leave from work necessary to recover from your pregnancy and childbirth, all while taking the time necessary to care for and bond with your newborn baby. And so, you may then be completely blindsided if your employer goes back on their word and lets you go in the middle of your break. Overall, you may be confused as to whether this abrupt change of plans is even legal in the first place. Well, if this has been your experience thus far, please continue reading to learn your legal rights if you are laid off during maternity leave and how an experienced FMLA lawyer in Gloucester County, New Jersey, at The Vigilante Law Firm, P.C., can help you exercise them effectively and appropriately.
What are my rights to maternity leave in New Jersey?
According to the New Jersey Family Leave Act (ACT), you have the right to up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected maternity leave. With this, you may take these 12 weeks consecutively or intermittently, depending on your needs after pregnancy and childbirth. Ultimately, your employer must guarantee that you can return to your same job position after this leave. Importantly, you must have worked for your employer for at least 1,000 hours within the past 12 months to be eligible for their existing maternity leave program.
What are my rights if I’m laid off during maternity leave?
Sadly, you may find yourself in a circumstance where your being laid off during your maternity leave is legally permissible under federal and state employment laws. That is, your employer may hold this right if the layoff was for business-related reasons and overall part of a larger company-wide restructuring. For example, if the company is undergoing major budget cuts and all your work team members are included in the layoff. And most unfortunately, the FMLA cannot protect you from a layoff if it is unrelated to your leave status.
However, the specifics surrounding your layoff may give you reason to believe it was done for illegal reasons. For instance, you may notice that only you and other women currently taking maternity leave, or other women pregnant in the workplace, or other women with small children at home, were part of your employer’s layoff. With this, you may decipher that this was a form of gender, pregnancy status, and/or family status discrimination. In turn, you may have the legal right to file a claim with the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
To better understand your legal rights in the matter at hand, please seek the advisement of one of the sound and skilled New Jersey employment lawyers. Please feel confident in knowing that our team at The Vigilante Law Firm, P.C. has significant experience in handling legal cases just like yours. So call us today.
