Fired While on Medical Leave?

Sometimes, yes. Being on medical leave does not automatically stop an employer from ending your employment. But the reason for the termination matters. Depending on your situation, California and federal law may protect qualifying medical leave, prohibit disability discrimination, and require your employer to reasonably accommodate a medical condition.

Many California employees are entitled to job-protected leave for their own serious health condition under the California Family Rights Act (CFRA) and, in some cases, the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).

In plain terms, if you qualify, your employer generally must allow you to take the leave, may not punish you for taking it, and must usually return you to the same or a comparable job when it ends. Whether you qualify depends on factors such as the size of your employer, how long you have worked there, and the hours you have worked.

Separately, California's Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) may require an employer to provide a reasonable accommodation to an employee with a qualifying disability. Time off can be one form of accommodation.

In some situations, a finite period of additional leave may be a reasonable accommodation even after other leave, such as CFRA or FMLA leave, has been used up.

FEHA also calls for an interactive process: the employer and employee working together in good faith to figure out whether an effective reasonable accommodation is available.

There is another side to the issue. An employer generally is not required to eliminate an essential function of a job. If an employee cannot perform the fundamental duties of the position, even with an effective reasonable accommodation, continued employment may not always be required.

Employers also generally are not required to provide indefinite leave with no reasonably foreseeable return date.

Medical-leave termination cases often involve several overlapping issues, including protected leave, disability discrimination, reasonable accommodation, retaliation, and wrongful termination.

Whether a termination was lawful depends on the particular circumstances, not simply on whether the employee happened to be on medical leave when it occurred.

An employment attorney can review what happened and help you understand which protections may apply to your situation. Learn more about how we represent employees statewide on our California Employment Lawyer page.