At the company i work for there is a union contract that forces the company to allow those that take FMLA for a family member's disability to choose whether to use there vacation time or to take it non paid. for those of us that are disabled and take FMLA for our own disability and not a family members are not covered in this contract so the company forces us to take our vacation time.

because they treat people with the disability differently then those that don’t have it but are taking FMLA for a family members disability's does this constitute discrimination? even though they do it because of the union contract? The contract does not state anything about people taking FMLA for there own disability’s and the state is a right to work state

thanks

In general, employers may require employees use paid leave before unpaid leave when taking FMLA. If they want to allow employees the option of not using their own leave for family members they may. Aside from the fact that it is hard to claim discrimination when you are receiving pay, not everyone who takes FMLA is disabled. In fact, the majority who take FMLA are not disabled at all. As this policy would apply to those disabled and non-disabled alike, it would not be discriminatory.

the policy to force you to use your vacation only applies to those that personaly have the disability, the policy that gives you the option to use vacation or not applies to those that are taking FMLA for a family member. to me this means you are being treated in a different way then other people using FMLA if you personaly have the disability instead of a family member having a disability.

so i get put into a possition that if i dont take a vacation at the very first of the year then by the middle of the year i do not have vacation time and then can not take any time off, period, they dont do nonpaid vacation here, if you dont have paid you just cant get time off. where as some one that is taking FMLA for a family member can make the choice and still end up taking a vacatoin later in the year.

sorry i am explaining it again because i didnt quite follow what you said or i didnt explain it very well the first time

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ok i think i understand, i kept re reading your reply, so what your saying is they do have the legal right to treat those with the disabilty differently then those with out the disability? or basicly have the right to choose who to force to use vacation and choose who not to force to use there vacation time?

uhh clarifying it yet again, so some people get forced to use it and some people dont, they dont treat every one the same way, they pick and choose who to force to use vacation and who not to based off them personaly having the disability or there family member having the medical problem.

The law does not require that all employees be treated exactly the same way. It only requires that differences not be based on a protected characteristic. By no means everyone who takes FMLA even for their own disability is going to meet the definition of "disabled" under the law; therefore, this is not an illegally discriminatory requirement.