My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: AZ

The company I work for has only one HR person that deals with FMLA. I've been on intermittent FMLA leave for some time and during the course of my leave I've had to provide documentation/certification to return to work. On one occasion the FMLA HR person was on vacation and I couldn't return to work for four days, since nobody else in HR would read/submit my paperwork due to confidentiality reasons. Another time, I had the paperwork faxed to HR directly so I could just show up the next day and work. I came into work the next day and I wasnt allowed to work due since the FMLA HR lady stated she didn't receive the fax. Of course I had my doctor fax the information again (who also keeps a record of faxes and indicated they had already sent it the day prior), but by the time I got the okay to work there was an hour left of my shift. Their excuse was that they hadn't checked the days prior faxes. In a similar incident information was faxed to the FMLA HR person and I showed up for work and couldn't work since the HR fax machine was broken.

This was all over the course of 4-5 months. Fast forward to a few days ago, I received a notification via work email one hour prior to my shift starting that I had exhausted my FMLA. I went back through the days they listed that I took FMLA and all of the days I missed due to the above reasons were marked as FMLA.

Is it possible for them to use my FMLA for days missed, when I'm showing up ready to work and the ball had been dropped on their end? Oh, another question, how does an employee count how many hours they have left of FMLA if HR gives them no tools to do so? When I asked for an update, they said under some section (which I dont recall) that I can only request the info once per 30 day period. Is it up to the employer to notify the employee of time remaining?


Thanks in advance.

(and yes I learned my lesson with faxing to them, I fax it myself and bring a copy with me when my shift starts)