# Employee Leave of absence lawyer medical disability, FMLA > California sick pay job termination for pregnancy, FMLA law, cancer leave, disability lawyer to sue employer fired workers on contingency Source: https://employeelawca.com/absences/ Firm: Employment Lawyers Group — employee-side employment lawyers since 1993. Serving Los Angeles County, California. Phone: (323) 525-1600 (calling is the fastest way to reach the legal team) Office: 13418 Ventura Blvd, Sherman Oaks, CA 91423 Contact form: https://employeelawca.com/contact/ Consultations are free and confidential; cases are taken on contingency. --- The California version of the Family Medical Leave Act is more expansive than the Federal FMLA act. A competent, practicing employment lawyer will use the California Family Rights Act (CFRA) and not FMLA if an employee needs to take off work for a qualifying event. Accordingly, this article focuses on the CFRA. **The CFRA (California’s version of the FMLA) provides coverage to employees under the following circumstances:** - the employee’s own serious medical condition - the serious medical condition of a spouse, including a domestic partner - the serious medical condition of a parent, foster, or adopted parent, parent-in law, or foster parent - the serious medical condition of a child - the serious medical condition of a grandparent - the serious medical condition of a sibling - the birth or adoption of a child - baby bonding **Serious medical conditions are defined as:** - hospitalization, hospice care, or residential treatment care - pregnancy - cancer - continuing treatment (2 or more treatments) by a health care provider broadly defined to include many kinds of health care providers Leave is allowed in situations other than physical health conditions and surgeries. For example, two or more treatments for therapy with a licensed therapist are qualifying events for CFRA. Treatment before a nurse practitioner, dentist, chiropractor, or physical therapist also qualify under most circumstances. **In order to qualify for CFRA leave:** - employees must be employed by the employer for 1 year - the employer must have 5 or more employees. - the employee requesting leave has not exceeded 12 weeks of CFRA leave in 1 year - the employee has worked 1,250 hours or more for the employer in the last year How the employee communicates their need for leave, what the healthcare provider has written, and the probable duration of the leave are often essential issues in CFRA/FMLA cases. There are many nuances, exceptions, and specific requirements for CFRA/FMLA leave. If you have been fired, are not being allowed to return to work, or were not returned with a comparable position please **call an experienced FMLA lawyer at [323-525-1600](tel:3235251600)**. Besides more serious medical conditions that qualify for CFRA, pregnancy leave, or disability leave, California requires employers to provide 1 hour of sick pay for every 30 hours worked. The City of Los Angeles requires employers to provide 6 sick days a year, presumably under this same formula. Employees elsewhere in California are supposed to accrue 5 sick days per calendar year. Employers can offer more than the minimum required number of sick days. Employees who are fired for using statutory sick days may have a case for wrongful termination due to violations of the California Labor Code. If an employee has exhausted their sick days, or has not accrued enough hours of sick pay to miss the amount of time they need to miss, for private employees who are not union members the only other avenue towards a case might be FMLA, disability, or pregnancy leave. Cases involving job terminations due to employees being sick may run into problems if the employee fails to call and/or is a no-call no show. While technically an employee should not be fired for being out of work when they are sick and have an accrued sick day, failures to communicate with the employer might create a defense by the employer. This is something you need to be prepared to discuss when speaking with an experienced California sick day lawyer at [323-525-1600](tel:3235251600). When consulting with an attorney about a job termination due to sickness, employees should check their paystubs or personal records to see how many sick days they have already used and the dates of those sick days. Either an employee has a sick day or they do not. The state of California requires employers to provide bereavement leave to certain employees. First, the employee must have worked for the employer a minimum of 30 days. Second, the employer must have 5 or more employees. Employers must allow bereavement leaves of at least 5 days. Employees who need longer bereavement leaves are not entitled to those leaves unless the employer has a different policy, or the leave qualifies under CFRA/FMLA. For example, employees who end up going to two or more therapy appointments to cope with the bereavement qualify for CFRA if they are otherwise an employee eligible for CFRA leave. Bereavement leave is for the death of a spouse, child, parent, sibling, grandparent, grandchild, domestic partner, or parent-in-law. However, an employer may voluntarily allow bereavement leave to be taken upon the death of another person with whom the employee has a relationship. Bereavement sick leave came into existence, in California, in 2023. The issues pertaining to this particular type of leave of absence continue to evolve. Issues with bereavement leave are similar to other employee leaves of absence. Employees have to actually tell their employer why they need the leave. Employees who are purposefully vague, embarrassed, or concerned with their privacy are likely to not disclose the right information to trigger the protective law. The Employment Lawyers Group recommends employees are explicit, forthright, and thorough in making requests for bereavement leaves and all leaves of absence. Under the law, what the employer does not know the employer may not be responsible for. Maternity leave in California derives from employee rights found in California Government Code Section 12945. In an non-legalistic speaking manner, maternity leave might be for as much as 7 months if the employee qualifies for CFRA leave. In order to qualify the employee must work at the employer for 12 months, 1,250 hours or more, and the employer must have 5 or more employees. If the employee does not qualify for CFRA, maternity leaves are limited to 4 months. Employers must provide maternity leaves to all eligible employees regardless of how long the employee was employed. Legal disputes sometimes occur when employers mistakenly believe they do not have to provide maternity leave, or pregnancy related medical accommodations to employees who are relatively new to the company. Likewise, an employee might request two maternity leaves in a relatively short period of time due to the birth of similarly aged children. The Employment Lawyers Group has handled cases where this causes the employer to not reinstate the employee after the leave, or terminate the employee before the leave begins for pretextual reasons. **Employees who are not reinstated to their prior positions, fired, or not called back to work after a maternity leave are encouraged to call [323-525-1600](tel:3235251600) to speak to an experienced pregnancy discrimination lawyer.** The Employment Lawyers Group has tried before a multiple juries cases involving pregnancy discrimination, harassment, and maternity leave violations including post-trial appeals. Likewise, they have handled these type of cases, often with wrongful termination, charges in arbitration. ## Our Firm: No Upfront Fees or Costs ### Contingency Fee Representation All employment cases for employees are taken on a **contingency basis**. We are only paid a fee **when and if we win** your case, and we **advance all litigation costs**. Our goal is to make expert legal representation accessible to every hardworking employee. ### Serving Los Angeles County We have proudly served all of Los Angeles County since 1993. Ready to discuss your case? (323) 525-1600 Submit A Contact Form The Employment Lawyers Group has successfully handled 2,000+ Separate California Employment Cases ## Media Engagements ## Sample Case Results breach of commission contract $1,150,000 Unpaid commissions of two plaintiffs unpaid wages $875,000 For 4 oil field service industry workers whose times worked were not recorded on timesheets and were on-call forced to work without pay standby pay case $800,000 Controlled stand by class action settlement Disclaimer: These results are based on the facts of these specific cases and do not guarantee or predict a similar result in any future case. ## Practice Areas [Discrimination Age, Disability, FMLA/CFRA, Gender, National Origin, Pregnancy, Race, and Sexual Orientation discrimination claims.](https://employeelawca.com/discrimination-lawyer-in-los-angeles/) [Unpaid Wages & Overtime Recovering earnings for overtime, bonuses, commissions, meal & rest break violations, and prevailing wage claims.](https://employeelawca.com/unpaid-wages/) [Sexual Harassment Compassionate and effective representation for sexual harassment and hostile work environment claims.](https://employeelawca.com/sexual-harassment/) [Wrongful Termination Representing employees terminated in violation of public policy, contracts, or California and federal law.](https://employeelawca.com/wrongful-termination/) [Leaves & Retaliation Protecting employees who face adverse actions after reporting illegal activity or taking protected medical leave.](https://employeelawca.com/absences/) [Whistleblowers Advocating for employees who report fraud, waste, or abuse under California and federal whistleblower protection laws.](https://employeelawca.com/los-angeles-financial-whistleblower/) ## Our California Locations ### Bakersfield [BakersfieldLaborAttorney.com](https://bakersfieldlaborattorney.com) 5401 Business Park S, #214, Bakersfield CA 93309 [(661) 412-9600](tel:6614129600) ### Los Angeles [EmployeeLawCA.com](https://employeelawca.com/) 611 Wilshire Blvd, #1023, Los Angeles CA 90017 [(323) 525-1600](tel:3235251600) ### Orange County [WorkLawyerOC.com](https://worklawyeroc.com) 2522 Chambers Rd, #100, Tustin CA 92780 [(714) 210-8000](tel:7142108000) ### Riverside [RiversideEmploymentLawyer.com](https://riversideemploymentlawyer.com) 9496 Magnolia Ave, #208, Riverside CA 92503 [(951) 367-1000](tel:9513671000) ### Sacramento [SacramentoLaborAttorney.com](https://sacramentolaborattorney.com) 777 Campus Commons Rd, #200, Sacramento CA 95825 [(916) 340-0000](tel:9163400000) ### San Bernardino [EmploymentAttorneySanBernardino.com](https://employmentattorneysanbernardino.com) 337 N. Vineyard Ave, #400, Ontario CA 91764 [(909) 663-2100](tel:9096632100) ### San Diego [SanDiegoEmployeeLawyer.com](https://sandiegoemployeelawyer.com) 330 "A" St, #60, San Diego CA 92101 [(619) 320-3000](tel:6193203000) ### San Francisco / Bay Area [BayAreaEmploymentAttorney.net](https://bayareaemploymentattorney.net) 524 Union St, #400, San Francisco CA 94133 [(877) 525-0700](tel:8775250700) ### San Jose / Silicon Valley [SiValleyLaborLawyer.com](https://sivalleylaborlawyer.com) 111 N. Market St, #300, San Jose CA 95113 [(877) 525-0700](tel:8775250700) ### Sherman Oaks [WorkLawyerCA.com](https://worklawyerca.com) 13418 Ventura Blvd, Sherman Oaks CA 91423 [(818) 783-7300](tel:8187837300) ### Torrance / South Bay [JobTerminationLaw.com](https://jobterminationlaw.com/) 3655 Torrance Blvd, 3rd Floor, Torrance CA 90503 [(310) 842-8600](tel:3108428600) ### Ventura / Oxnard [VenturaEmploymentLawyer.com](https://venturaemploymentlawyer.com) 4030 West Hemlock St, Oxnard CA 93035 [(805) 200-0100](tel:8052000100) ### Additional Sites [BostonLaborLaw.com](https://bostonlaborlaw.com) [DcLaborAttorney.com](https://dclaborattorney.com) [FresnoEmployeeLawyer.com](https://fresnoemployeelawyer.com) [JobLawyer.net](https://joblawyer.net) [MarylandLaborAttorney.com](https://marylandlaborattorney.com/) [ModemStud.com](https://modemstud.com) [VintageLosAngeles.org](https://vintagelosangeles.org) [WorkplaceLawyer.org](https://workplacelawyer.org) ## About Firm Founder, Karl Gerber Firm Founder, **Karl Gerber**, has been an employment and wrongful termination attorney since **1993**. He has represented a wide range of employees throughout California. Mr. Gerber has won **51 of the binding arbitrations and jury trials** he first chaired, and a number of his appeals are published. This deep trial experience is the foundation of the firm's strategic approach to litigation. The employment attorneys employed by the Employment Lawyers Group have worked at the firm well in excess of five years, have also tried many different labor cases, and have all been **extensively trained on employment and wrongful termination law by Karl Gerber**. [Meet Karl Gerber](https://employeelawca.com/karl-gerber/) ## Ready to Discuss Your Case? Your rights as an employee matter. Submit a contact form and we'll get back to you. Submit A Contact Form [Call (323) 525-1600 Now](tel:3235251600)