Fmla help needed fast!!!!!!!

My problem is that i need to take some time off because my girlfriend needs to have two surgureys next week. I know that my employer said it wont work because we are not married but is there any way to take time off so i can watch my son who is only 11 months old?

i have worked for this company for 3years and 8 months and we have over 500 people working in our building alone.

Unfortunately, FMLA would not cover taking time off to take care of a girlfriend.  You could ask your employer to use any PTO you have banked.  Also, it's getting more and more rare these days (employers have been burned), but some companies will allow employees to "borrow time" against their bank.  However, if the company needs you to be at work next week, neither of these options may work. 

FMLA is also not designed to cover "baby-sitting" or day-care.  I.e., if your child was the one sick and you needed time to care for a serious illness, you may be eligible for FMLA protection.  However, if you are needing the time to watch him b/c GF can't due to her illness, that would not be protected.  One would expect that you can get some sort of sitter or day-care arrangement.

i dont know if i have any vacation baanked because they dont tell us till the begining of june and then we have one week to plan out when to use it

FMLA is for your serious illness or injury or that of your family.  Your girlfriend is not your legal family.

Only if you have vacation or other personal time. You have not been there long enough to get FMLA even if you were married.

Sorry - I thought the 11 mos applied to the length of employment.

But FMLA does not apply to girlfriends.

I'm not sure where you get your information, but you need to look it up again.  First off, Needhelp999, this situation can be a little sticky, but can be won in your favor.  If your girlfriend's main activities involved taking care of your home and son, and these surguries are preventing her from completing them, then they can be covered under FMLA, watching your son is actually an irrelevant detail.  Now, the questions you need to answer are:

1.) Are you willing to be common law married to your girlfriend?

2.) If you answered yes to the above question.  Do you meet the requirements to be common law married (you never know, you may already be considered common law married, in which case she is covered under your FMLA).

3.) Will her doctor approve your FMLA?

4.) Do you meet the requirements for FMLA participation?

If you can answer yes to all of these questions, then all you have to do is pickup an FMLA notification packet from your work, have your doctor and supervisor sign, and say bye-bye.

I don't know where YOU get YOUR information, but the OP's state does not recognize common law marriage so your entire post is moot.

Arion:

If you can answer yes to all of these questions, then all you have to do is pickup an FMLA notification packet from your work, have your doctor and supervisor sign, and say bye-bye.

But I do encourage the OP to have sufficient savings set aside.  Once his employer trashes him for job abandonment, he will discover he doesn't qualify for UI benefits.  He might also find himself dissed as an unreliable candidate when prospective new employers do background history checks.

P.S. -- "Supervisors" don't sign FMLA stuff.

"If you can answer yes to all of these questions, then all you have to do is pickup an FMLA notification packet from your work, have your doctor and supervisor sign, and say bye-bye."

Not even close.

1) FMLA law does not recognize common law marriage.  

2)  Isn't relevant since FMLA doesn't apply to people who aren't legally married.

3) Doctors do not approve FMLA leave.  They supply medical documentation to the employer of the necessity of the leave.  They cannot approve or deny it.

4) No.  The OP does not meet the requirements.  It isn't an immediate family member requiring medical care.  He is needed to babysit his son.  That does not even come close to meeting FMLA standards.

Even if he turns in the proper FMLA paperwork if the REASON for the absence doesn't meet the standards all that will happen is as CBG said he will be charged with abandoning his job and having deemed voluntarily quitting.  The employee cannot just hand in the paperwork and walk.  There is more to it than that.  They have to have it approved by the employer as an authorized FMLA absence.  

If the OP follows your advice they only thing they will be saying bye-bye to is their job.

Arion,

Read the link below to 29 CFR 825.122 and read section (a).  It's pretty clear; unless the state recognizes common law marriages, your strategy does not work.  OP's state does not recognize common law marriage.  Can you please  point me to where FMLA covers baby-sitting and childcare?  In OP's case, it appears the child himself is not the one who is seriously ill.  FMLA is a great thing, but if it was stretched to cover folks who couldn't find baby-sitters for a healthy child, many an employer would be in a world of hurt.

http://www.dol.gov/dol...