Medical Issues, Rights & Benefits
Older workers enjoy a host of rights. Many employers
offer benefits to their employees. Issues often arise involving the following
rights and benefits:
- Health Insurance & Life Insurance
- COBRA
- edical Leave Protection Laws
- Sick Leave
These are discussed below.
Health Insurance & Life Insurance
There is no requirement under California law for
employers to provide employees with medical or life insurance. Employees should
refer to their employer’s policy with respect to medical and life
insurance benefits. However, an employer who provides employee medical benefits
and discontinues those benefits must provide employees with written notice at
least 15 days in advance of the discontinuance of coverage. A terminated
employee may be entitled to continued coverage under the federal COBRA act or
California's continued coverage requirements.
COBRA
The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act
(COBRA) provides certain former employees, retirees, spouses former spouses,
and dependent children the right to temporary continuation of health coverage
at group rates. This coverage, however, is only available when coverage is lost
due to certain specific events. Group health coverage for COBRA participants is
usually more expensive than health coverage for active employees, since usually
the employer pays a part of the premium for active employees while COBRA
participants generally pay the entire premium themselves. It is ordinarily less
expensive, though, than individual health coverage. COBRA generally applies to
employees of companies of 20 or more employees.
Medical Leave Protection Laws
Under both the federal and the California law, an
employee who is eligible for medical leave may generally take up to 12 work
weeks of leave in a year. The employer is usually not required to pay the
employee for such medical leave. However, the employer must allow the employee
to return to work without any negative consequences.
Family And Medical Leave Act
The Family and Medical Leave Act (the FMLA) is the
federal law that generally prevents an employee from being terminated for
missing work because of a health problem or to care for a close family member
with a serious health problem. The provisions of this law can be found at
Section 2601 of Title 29 of the United States Code.
California Family Rights Act
The California Family Rights Act (the CFRA) allows an
employee to take up to 12 weeks of leave in a year. The CFRA, also known as the
Moore-Brown-Roberti Family Rights Act is part of the California Fair Employment
and Housing Act (the FEHA), which protects employees against various forms of
discrimination and harassment. The CFRA can be found at Section 12945.2 of the
California Government Code. The California law is generally preferable to the
federal counterpart because it does not limit the amount of compensatory and
punitive damages you may recover against the defendant if you prevail.
Eligibility for medical leave
To be eligible to take protected family medical leave,
the employee must have worked for an employer 50 or more employees for over one
year. Additionally, the employee may only take medical leave for her own
serious health condition or that of her spouse, child or parent. A serious
health condition is usually an injury or illness that prevents the employee
from being able to do her job. The employer may require the employee provide a
note from her physician certifying the health condition is serious. The birth
of a child is also a reason to take medical leave.
Sick Leave
If an employer has a sick leave policy, the employer
must permit an employee to use in any calendar year, the employee’s
accrued and available sick leave, in an amount not less than the sick leave
that would be accrued during 6 months at the employee’s current rate of
sick leave, to attend to an illness of a child, parent, domestic partner, or
spouse of the employee.
For a free consultation about age discrimination in
the workplace with an experienced employee rights attorney, contact David
Spivak:
For further information on your rights in the work
place, please visit our other websites:
