FMLA Retaliation Lawyer for Macomb County
Macomb County work is physical. Line work at Sterling Heights Assembly and Warren Truck, skilled trades in the Van Dyke supplier corridor, patient handling at Henry Ford Macomb and McLaren Macomb.
Physical work produces injuries and surgeries, and those produce FMLA leave. The retaliation shows up afterward: a “no call, no show” termination while you were under a doctor’s care, a refusal to take you back with restrictions, or discipline that started the week your certification landed. Most firings in an at-will state are lawful. Firing you for using protected leave is not, and if the leave and the discipline sit on the same calendar, you may have a case.
The 15-minute case evaluation is free, and termination cases are taken on contingency. You have two years from the retaliatory act to sue, three only if you can prove willfulness, with no EEOC charge first. The statewide FMLA retaliation page covers the statute; this page is about Macomb County workers.
How FMLA retaliation cases look in Macomb County
The injured line worker at Sterling Heights Assembly, Warren Truck, or Sterling Axle
An assembler hurts a shoulder, files a workers’ compensation claim, and is put on leave. Most workers do not know that the employer can, and usually does, run FMLA concurrently with the comp leave, so the twelve weeks are burning while the checks arrive. When the doctor clears a return with a lifting restriction, the plant says it has no work within restrictions, the leave quietly expires, and a termination letter follows for exceeding the leave policy. The evidence is the designation notice, the comp file, the return-to-work slip, and the light-duty assignments given to coworkers with non-work injuries.
Engineers and salaried staff at the GM Tech Center in Warren
The Technical Center is the county’s largest white-collar workplace. A program engineer takes leave for surgery or a spouse’s illness and returns to find the program reassigned and a manager documenting “engagement concerns.” The evidence is the pre-leave performance history, the reassignment emails, and the timeline from certification to the first negative note.
Nurses and techs at Henry Ford Macomb and McLaren Macomb
Hospital attendance systems require a call-in before each shift, and an employee on intermittent FMLA who misses the window during a flare-up gets coded as an unexcused absence. Three of those and the hospital calls it job abandonment. An employer may enforce its usual call-in procedure, but not when unusual circumstances prevented compliance, and not when coworkers who missed the window for other reasons were forgiven. The evidence is the call log, your phone records, and how the policy was applied to others.
Skilled trades and suppliers along Van Dyke, Groesbeck, and M-59
Macomb County’s supplier base includes hundreds of shops with 30 to 200 employees, from Shelby Township’s industrial parks to Roseville. Here the first question is coverage: did the company have 50 employees within 75 miles of your worksite, counting every location under common ownership? A machinist at a 45-person shop with a 20-person sister plant in Chesterfield may be covered when neither location alone would be. The evidence is the W-2 employer name, the company’s other locations, and the certification the employer accepted.
The law that applies
Michigan has no state leave statute that mirrors the FMLA, so the core claim is federal. The employer must have 50 employees within 75 miles, or be a public agency of any size, and you must have 12 months of service and 1,250 hours actually worked in the prior year. Hours on layoff, on comp, or on prior leave do not count toward the 1,250, which matters in a county where temporary layoffs are common.
The deadline is two years from the act you are complaining about. Three years applies only to willful violations, and you should not plan on proving willfulness. There is no agency charge, which also means no one is watching your calendar for you.
When you returned with restrictions, the ADA and Michigan’s Persons with Disabilities Civil Rights Act come into play; a “100 percent healed” return policy is a PWDCRA problem on its own. And when the injury was work-related, Michigan’s workers’ compensation act separately prohibits firing someone for filing a comp claim (MCL 418.301(13)), a count I plead alongside the FMLA claim when the facts support it.
| Claim | Who’s covered | Deadline | Damages |
|---|---|---|---|
| FMLA interference / retaliation (federal) | 50+ employees within 75 miles, or any public agency; 12 months and 1,250 hours | 2 years, 3 if willful; no agency step | Lost pay, matching liquidated damages unless good faith is shown, reinstatement or front pay, fees |
| PWDCRA (Michigan), returned with restrictions | 1+ employees | 3 years; written accommodation request within 182 days | Lost pay plus uncapped emotional distress, fees |
| ADA (federal), same restrictions | 15+ employees | EEOC charge within 300 days | Lost pay plus compensatory and punitive damages capped at $50K–$300K |
| Workers’ comp retaliation (Michigan) | Employers subject to the comp act | 3 years | Lost pay and emotional distress |
The Michigan employment claim deadlines page collects every one of these.
Where your Macomb County FMLA retaliation case gets filed
An FMLA claim is federal, so the default courthouse for a Macomb County case is the Theodore Levin U.S. Courthouse, 231 W. Lafayette Boulevard in Detroit, home of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. You may file an FMLA count in the Macomb County Circuit Court, the 16th Circuit at 40 N. Main Street in Mount Clemens, but the employer will remove it to Detroit, so I generally start there.
The state claims change that math. A PWDCRA or comp-retaliation claim filed alone stays in Mount Clemens in front of a Macomb County jury, one that knows what a points system is and what “no work within restrictions” usually means. Sometimes that is the better case. The Macomb County employment lawyer page covers the jury pool and venue trade-offs.
The courthouse is the same whether you worked in Warren, Sterling Heights, or Clinton Township. What changes from plant to plant is the attendance policy and the leave administrator.
Federal FMLA at the Detroit Arsenal versus private FMLA at General Dynamics
Warren’s Detroit Arsenal and TACOM employ thousands of federal civilians; General Dynamics Land Systems and the defense suppliers around Sterling Heights employ thousands more as private workers. The FMLA treats the two groups very differently.
Most federal civilian employees are covered by Title II of the FMLA, administered by the Office of Personnel Management rather than the Department of Labor, and courts have generally held that Title II gives them no right to sue in court. The remedy runs through the agency’s own procedures, the negotiated grievance process, or the Merit Systems Protection Board, and discrimination-based claims must start with an EEO counselor within 45 days. If you work at TACOM and were punished for taking leave, call your steward and the agency EEO office this week.
General Dynamics Land Systems employees, and everyone at the suppliers in the defense chain, are private employees under Title I, and the full FMLA applies. The one wrinkle is the security clearance: courts will not review the clearance decision itself, so a case involving a suspended clearance has to be built around what the employer did with the leave.
For what the documents in a strong case look like, see evidence for FMLA retaliation.
What to do in the first 72 hours
- Save your leave and comp paperwork to a personal account tonight. Designation notices, certifications, the return-to-work slip, and every message from the leave administrator or the comp carrier, before your badge is deactivated.
- Get your call-in records together. Phone logs, texts, and voicemails showing when you reported each absence defeat a “no call, no show” story.
- Request your personnel file in writing. Michigan’s Bullard-Plawecki Employee Right to Know Act requires the employer to let you review and copy it, and it often shows when the termination was actually decided.
- Send a written request for light duty or a modified assignment. Michigan’s PWDCRA protects only written accommodation requests, and the 182-day window opens when you learn you need one.
- Do not sign the separation agreement or any “voluntary resignation.” The release covers the FMLA claim, and a resignation converts your termination into a quit.
- File the union grievance if you have one, then call. The grievance enforces the contract, not the FMLA.
Macomb County FMLA retaliation questions
I got hurt on the line at a Macomb County plant and I’m on workers’ comp. Can the plant count that as my FMLA leave too?
Yes. When a work injury qualifies as a serious health condition, the employer may designate the comp leave as FMLA leave and run the two concurrently, as long as it gives you written notice of the designation. That means the twelve weeks may be gone before you are cleared to return. The employer cannot, however, make you use paid vacation during a period when you are receiving comp benefits.
I’m a federal civilian employee at TACOM. Can I sue for FMLA retaliation?
Generally not in court. Most federal civilian employees fall under Title II of the FMLA, and courts have largely held it creates no private right to sue. Your remedies run through the agency’s grievance procedure, your union’s negotiated process, or the Merit Systems Protection Board, and if discrimination is involved you must contact an EEO counselor within 45 days. Those deadlines are short. Act this week.
My employer treated my FMLA days as “no call, no show” and fired me for job abandonment. Is that legal?
It depends on why you missed the call-in. An employer may enforce its usual call-in procedure even for FMLA absences, unless unusual circumstances kept you from complying, such as being hospitalized or incapacitated. It also cannot enforce the rule against you while excusing coworkers who missed the window for non-FMLA reasons. Gather your phone records and the attendance policy; that comparison decides these cases.
I was laid off for part of the year and didn’t hit 1,250 hours. Am I still eligible for FMLA in Michigan?
Probably not for now. The 1,250 hours must be hours actually worked in the twelve months before the leave starts, and layoff, vacation, comp, and prior leave time do not count. The 12 months of service need not be consecutive, so a recall counts toward it. If you fall short, an ADA or PWDCRA accommodation request, including a request for leave, may protect you instead.
Can my Macomb County employer make me burn my vacation and PTO during FMLA leave?
Yes, in most cases. The regulations allow an employer to require you to substitute accrued paid leave for unpaid FMLA leave, so long as its policy says so and it tells you at the time of designation. The paid time runs concurrently with, not in addition to, the twelve weeks. The exception is workers’ compensation: while comp benefits are being paid, the employer cannot force paid-leave substitution.
Talk to an FMLA retaliation lawyer who takes Macomb County cases
If the discipline started after the certification, or the job was gone when the doctor cleared you, call (313) 701-2448 or schedule a free 15-minute case evaluation. Have the designation notice and the termination letter in front of you.
Warren Astbury. Harvard Law School, J.D. 2009. More than 50 cases tried to verdict over 15 years, representing employees and never employers. I take FMLA cases from across Macomb County, Warren to Richmond.
Different county, different courthouse. See the Wayne County, Oakland County, and Washtenaw County FMLA retaliation pages.