A friend, who has worked for a large company for over 3 years, just had a 3-day old baby given to her by CPS yesterday (she and her husband have two brothers they adopted 4 years ago and were still in the system to foster/adopt a newborn girl). Since she works for this company as part of the LEGAL department, I’m quite sure she knows what she’s talking about, but I still can’t believe that this company can actually FIRE employees who take maternity leave/FMLA simply because a) there is not another company employee within 50 miles who can do his/her job while he/she is out, and b) they are paid technically for their 12 weeks as a severance payoff when they are terminated. I mean, SERIOUSLY? Just because I woman (or man, for that matter!) has a baby (either biologically or legally), what is this company expecting them to do? Take a 3-day weekend and come back to work, while they newborn is left with a paid caregiver???

How can this be LEGAL? and if it is, this company, and any others who follow the same lack of respect for a federal law by twisting its parameters, should be ASHAMED!

Any and all input and/or legal insight is appreciated!
Thank you both Michael and Richard for your prompt and helpful responses! BUT, there is something really strange about this situation where my friend works. Somehow, they have actually fired 2 people (women who’d each given birth) in the last week for these exact reasons 1) no one in a 50 mile radius can do their jobs for them, and 2) they were paid 12 weeks FMLA as severance. This is the exact reason why my friend is afraid to even broach the subject of taking time off to care for this abandoned newborn with her boss… because she’s quite sure she’ll be fired immediately. My friend IS one of their legal counselors and swears that this company is legally allowed to do this! Bizarre.

I have worked for a company for about 14 months. The first 6 months I worked as a “sub” for them, but I still worked a full 40 hours a week and my checks still came directly from them. I now need to go on FMLA, but they are telling me that I am not covered because my I was not officially hired on from sub status until 8 months ago. Are they right, or does FMLA time include all of the time I worked for them, even as a sub?