Q: Is it legal to change my work schedule from Mon., Wed., Fri. to Sunday to Tuesday after leaving 5 weeks fromFMLA, Covid

A: First, very sorry to hear about your circumstance, it must be very difficult to feel punished while trying to do the best to raise your child, and these are the most difficult times. Few people were trained to be teachers but they now find themselves in the multiple roles of wage earner, teacher, homemaker, and juvenile parole officer! (just kidding, but sometimes it may seem like it if you have a teenager at home 100%)

So for your employment question, the problem really is whether the manager took this action against you BECAUSE you took FMLA time off? FMLA protects you for having to be the primary care person for a family member who is SICK, not who has to do schoolwork online, unless your daughter has some underlying physical or mental disability that makes this particularly difficult for her to do without your constant supervision. You are protected for taking FMLA time off, for requesting FMLA time off without getting it, or for qualifying for FMLA time off without asking for it. When you take FMLA time off, you are ENTITLED to return to your former position or a comparable position if your former position has been eliminated. The key word here is COMPARABLE. Going from a 5 day (full time) position to a 2 day (part time) position is not COMPARABLE. (unless you agree to work for 2 days and receive 5 days pay- but we both know that isn't going to happen.)

One way to prove the connection is timing. How long after you returned to your position did your manager tell you that you had to work weekends or take a cut to 2 days a week? Another question is whether working weekends is a comparable job? Is there a premium paid for working weekends? How many other parents (are you a single parent) or single parents are required to work weekends in the company?

Another area of inquiry is how close were this manager and the new hire before she was hired? Are they related?

What action should you take now? Well, AFTER YOU CONSULT WITH AN ATTORNEY, you might start with HR, since they seem to be more favorable to you than the manager. You should explain why you cannot work on weekends due to health/family/ whatever situation,. but these reasons have to provide LEGAL reasons for you to not work weekends, not just for your happiness or convenience. You should look at a filing with the DFEH, which can be done on line, but you should choose for the DFEH to INVESTIGATE your case, which will give you time to hire an attorney and to see what all the retaliation this company is prepared to do against you- like firing you. You should definitely be looking for a new job elsewhere, the writing is on the wall- you are going to leave one way or the other.

The information provided herein is an opinion based on the information provided by the question, and no additional inquiry has been made to determine if there are other or additional facts which could significantly change the opinion. You should not rely on the opinion without first privately consulting with an attorney of your own.