[Ricky Lynn]

Why would my husbands company be forcing him to fill out fmla paperwork for an on the job injury. What would the benifit be for them. What kind of issues would this cause him in the future. for example if it took longer than 12 weeks to recover would his job be "protected". What if he needed the time off for family obligations, or possable illness? it seems to me to be 2 seperate things. he is being told it is one in the same and that he has no choice but to go on fmla. we live and work in Illinois.

[cbg]

Whoever is telling you that he has no choice about FMLA is absolutely correct. If the employee, the employer and the medical condition all qualify under FMLA, the employer MUST apply FMLA protections. It makes no difference whether it's a work related injury or not.

FMLA does not cover "family obligations" unless the "obligation" is the illness of a dependent who is qualified under the statute and the employee is needed to provide care. And insofar as other illnesses go, the same could be said any time FMLA is provided; what if another illness comes up later? The answer is, that's too bad, but the law provides for a total of 12 weeks of protected illness per 12 month period and when it's been used up, that's the end of the employer's obligation.

FMLA is a Federal law and it works the same way in all 50 states.

[Ricky Lynn]

Ok,

I get that, I am just wanting to make sure that by him signing this document he is not stating in some way that this injury occured out of the work environment, enabling the company to put all the medical bills and expenses on us. I had always assumed that fmla was for illness (cancer etc) or injury sustained out of work.

[cbg]

No, it's for any serious health condition as defined under the statute.