- Take up to 12 workweeks of unpaid, federally protected leave in a 12-month period for certain family and medical reasons, including for a serious health condition.
- Continued group health insurance. If your employer normally provides group health insurance coverage, then you have the right to continued coverage during FMLA leave on the same terms as if you had continued to work.
- Job protection. When you return from FMLA leave, you will return to the same job or to one virtually identical in terms of pay, benefits, and other employment terms and conditions (including shift and location).
- Protection against retaliation. The FMLA contains protections against retaliation for workers who exercise their rights under the law.
What You Can Do
- Check your FMLA eligibility. To take FMLA, you will need to meet the FMLA’s eligibility requirements.
- Use our “Am I Eligible for FMLA Leave?” graphic and Fact Sheet #28 to see if you meet the FMLA’s eligibility criteria.
- If you’re unsure how the eligibility criteria are applied, please call the Wage and Hour Division’s toll-free helpline at 1-866-487-9243.
- Use Fact Sheet #28P to learn about taking leave for your or your family member’s serious health conditions.
- Use Fact Sheet #28O to learn more abut taking leave for mental health conditions.
- If you’re unsure if the FMLA may apply to your situation, you may call the Wage and Hour Division’s toll-free helpline at 1-866-487-9243.
- Visit this page on using FMLA leave to get an overview.
- Use our guide, How to Talk to Your Employer About Taking Time off for Family and Medical Reasons, to help prepare for your conversation.
- If you have questions, or you think that your rights under the FMLA may have been violated, you can contact WHD at 1-866-487-9243. You will be directed to the WHD office nearest you for assistance.
More to Know
- You may also want to check out our FMLA fact sheets on employee notice requirements and employer notification requirements, which are also helpful at this stage in the process.
- Medical certification. Your employer may ask you for information from your health care provider, or your family member’s health care provider, before approving your FMLA leave request.
- Talk to your doctor, nurse practitioner, clinical psychologist or social worker, or other person who is providing health care services to you or your family.
- Your employer must allow you at least 15 calendar days to provide enough information to show that you need FMLA leave for a medical reason.
- You are usually entitled to more time to get information from a health care provider if you have tried to get a certification from a health care provider but were unable to get one completed in time because of circumstances that were not your fault.
- Your employer cannot refuse a fax or copy of the medical certification, a medical certification that is not completed on your employer’s standard company form, or any other record of the medical documentation, such as a communication on the letterhead of the health care provider.
- Use Fact Sheet #28G to learn more about certification of a serious health condition under the FMLA.
- Visit our FMLA Forms webpage to find example forms, which you can have a health care provider fill out for you to provide certification to your employer.
- For example, if you can use your paid sick leave when your child is sick, then you can use your paid sick leave when you are using FMLA leave to care for your sick child.
- Or, you may be able to use paid vacation time during FMLA leave to take care of your sick parent.
- You may also use FMLA at the same time as you receive short term disability or workers’ compensation benefits.
Leave Under State Family and Medical Leave or Temporary Disability Laws
What You Should Know
- Your state may have family and medical leave laws or temporary disability laws that also provide protections.
- State laws might provide more generous protections than under the federal FMLA. For example, a state law may provide—
- wage replacement during your leave,
- broader eligibility,
- more allowable uses for taking leave, and/or
- a broader range of people for whom you can take caregiver leave (e.g., some states permit leave to care for parents-in-law, or unmarried domestic partners).
What You Can Do
- Contact your state’s labor office to learn about the rights you may have to take family, medical, or disability leave under state law.
Leave as a Reasonable Accommodation Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
What You Should Know
- The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is the agency responsible for administering the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) employment provisions.
- The ADA requires employers to provide adjustments or modifications—called reasonable accommodations—to enable job applicants and employees with disabilities to enjoy equal employment opportunities unless doing so would be an undue hardship (that is, a significant difficulty or expense). Under the ADA, an employer must provide a reasonable accommodation that is needed because of the limitations caused by the cancer itself, the side effects of the treatment, or both, barring undue hardship.
- Some employees with cancer may need leave as an accommodation for doctors' appointments and/or to seek or to recuperate from treatment. An employer must consider an employee with cancer’s request to provide access to leave policies on equal terms as other similarly situated employees.
- Also, under the ADA, an employer must consider providing unpaid leave to an employee with a disability as a reasonable accommodation if the employee requires it, and so long as it does not create an undue hardship for the employer. This is the case even when:
- the employer does not offer leave as an employee benefit;
- the employee is not eligible for leave under the employer's policy; or
- the employee has exhausted the leave the employer provides as a benefit (including leave exhausted under a workers' compensation program, or the FMLA or similar state or local laws).
What You Can Do
- Visit the EEOC’s webpage, Cancer in the Workplace and the ADA, to learn more.
- Visit the Job Accommodation Network’s webpage on Accommodating Employees with Cancer for ideas regarding reasonable accommodations, organized by limitation and work-related function.
- Contact the EEOC if you have any questions.
Paid Sick Leave for Federal Contractors Under Executive Order 13706
What You Should Know
- Executive Order 13706, Establishing Paid Sick Leave for Federal Contractors (EO), requires certain employers that contract with the federal government to provide employees working on or in connection with the contracts with up to seven days of paid sick leave annually.
- This paid sick leave can be used to care for yourself, a family member, or a non-family member if your relationship is equivalent to a family relationship.
What You Can Do
- Check to see if you are working on a federal contract that provides paid sick leave.
- Use our fact sheet, How do I know if I am working on a federal contract under which I am entitled to accrue and use paid sick leave?
- Call the Wage and Hour Division at 1-866-487-9243.
Paid Leave Provided by Your Employer
What You Should Know
- Your employer may, but is not required to, provide you with paid leave.
- If you have available sick time, vacation time, paid time off (PTO), etc., you may use that leave time, along with your unpaid, federally protected FMLA leave in certain circumstances so that you continue to get paid. Even if you do not choose this option, your employer may require you to use your accrued paid leave consistent with their policies.
- Your employer must let you know if you are using federally protected FMLA leave at the same time as you are using employer provided paid leave.
What You Can Do
- Ask your employer about your available paid leave.
- Check out our fact sheet on employer notification requirements.
Protections Against Discrimination
Whether you have cancer, you’re recovering from cancer, or you’ve had cancer in the past, you have the right to be treated fairly in the workplace. You may be protected against discrimination under federal or state laws.
- Prohibited Discrimination Under the Americans with Disabilities Act
- Prohibited Discrimination Under the Family and Medical Leave Act
Prohibited Discrimination Under the Americans with Disabilities Act
What You Should Know
- The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is the agency responsible for administering the ADA's employment provisions.
- The ADA prohibits discrimination by private employers (with 15 or more employees) or state or local government employers against job applicants and employees with disabilities. The ADA’s nondiscrimination standards also apply to federal sector job applicants and employees under Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act.
- The ADA does not include an exclusive list of conditions considered to be a disability under the act. An individual with a disability is defined in the ADA as someone who has "a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities; has a record of such an impairment; or is regarded as having such an impairment."
- Depending on where you work, you may be protected from discrimination under federal, state and/or local laws.
What You Can Do
- Visit the EEOC’s Disability-Related Resources webpage, where you can find Cancer in the Workplace and the ADA and many more materials.
- Contact the EEOC if you have any questions.
- Visit the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) resource page, Employment Rights: Who has Them and Who Enforces Them, to learn more about which laws may apply to you.
Prohibited Discrimination Under the Family and Medical Leave Act
What You Should Know
- The FMLA contains protections against retaliation.
- Your employer is prohibited from interfering with, restraining, or denying your FMLA rights.
- An employer cannot retaliate against you for filing a complaint and cooperating with the Wage and Hour Division or bringing a private action to court.
- An employer cannot interfere with FMLA rights by refusing to grant FMLA leave, discouraging an employee from taking FMLA leave, or engaging in manipulation to avoid its FMLA responsibilities (for example, changing your listed job duties to make it appear that you do not need to take leave).
- The FMLA also prohibits an employer from discriminating or retaliating against employees or prospective employees who have used or have attempted to use FMLA leave. An employer may not use the taking of FMLA leave as a negative factor in employment actions, such as hiring, promotions, or disciplinary actions, and cannot count FMLA leave under no-fault attendance policies.
- Your employer cannot retaliate against you when you go back to work. For example, your employer cannot transfer you to a different work location or reduce the number of hours you usually work because you used FMLA leave.
What You Can Do
- Visit the Wage and Hour Division’s Anti-Retaliation website to learn more about retaliation.
- If you think your employer is retaliating against you, you can call the Wage and Hour Division’s toll-free helpline at 1-866-487-9243.
