Can I Be Fired While on Leave for Disability?

If you were fired because of a disability, you might have a legal claim against your former employer. If you had to take time off for your disability, you may also be protected by the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). And under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), employers can't discriminate against qualified people with disabilities and must make reasonable accommodations to allow them to do their jobs.

Can You Be Legally Fired While on Disability?

The laws covering whether you can be fired while you're off work recovering from a physical or mental illness or injury are complicated. First, whether your job is protected depends on whether you're:

• taking time off under the FMLA or a similar state family and medical leave law
• taking other paid or unpaid leave
• collecting workers' compensation temporary disability benefits, or
• collecting short-term or long-term disability (LTD) insurance benefits.

Second, you can always be laid off due to business necessity or be fired for performance issues that don't have to do with your disability.

Third, there are some situations in which you can legally be fired even though you're on disability leave, as long as your employer follows the rules under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Is Your Job Protected Under the Family and Medical Leave Act?

If you're covered by the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), you can take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to deal with a physical or mental medical problem (or to take care of a family member's medical issues).

Unfortunately, the FMLA doesn't apply to most employees who work for small businesses—the law applies only to employees who work at companies with at least 50 workers (who work within 75 miles of each other). Also, employees can take FMLA leave only if they have worked at least a year for an employer and worked at least 1,250 hours for that employer in the past year.

Assuming you're eligible for FMLA leave and you correctly requested it, you can't be fired while on FMLA leave. And when you return from FMLA leave, your employer must give you back your position, or one that is nearly the same—assuming you can still do the job.

Is Your Job Protected Under State Leave Laws?

Most states have their own laws regarding unpaid leave for medical reasons, and most of these laws provide protections that are similar to the protections the FMLA provides. In most states, you can't be fired while on paid or unpaid leave covered by state law.

Some state leave laws are even more generous than the FMLA. For instance, the California Family Rights Act (CFRA) protects your job and requires your employer to continue group benefits while you're out on leave (and applies to companies with only five employees). And Washington's Paid Family and Medical Leave Act (RCW Chapter 50A) protects your job and provides paid leave.

Check with your state's Department of Labor or an employment law attorney for information on your state's leave policies, especially if you aren't covered by the FMLA.

Can You Be Fired While on Short-Term Disability or Long-Term Disability?

If you're collecting short-term disability (STD) or long-term disability (LTD) insurance benefits, it's probably through your employer's ERISA-based insurance policies. These short-term and long-term disability insurance policies pay you cash benefits when you're off work due to a disability, but they offer no protection for your job.

To be protected while you collect short- or long-term disability benefits, you need to rely on a medical leave law, like the FMLA (discussed above), or a disability discrimination law, like the ADA (discussed below).

Can You Be Fired While Collecting Temporary Workers' Comp Benefits?

Your employer can't fire you for:

• reporting a work-related injury
• filing a workers' compensation claim, or
• taking off work while you collect temporary total disability benefits.

Your employer has to keep you on at least until your temporary disability benefits stop—that is, until you fully recover from your injury or recover as much as you're going to. To learn more, read our article on job protections while collecting workers' comp.

Is Your Job Protected Under the Americans with Disabilities Act?

Even after you've exhausted your 12 weeks of FMLA leave per year, or if you're not eligible for FMLA leave, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) can make it difficult for your employer to fire you when you're out on disability leave. Fortunately, the ADA covers more small businesses than the FMLA—businesses with just 15 or more workers have to follow the ADA rules.

Employers covered by ADA must first try to work with you if they want to fire you for not being able to do the job.

When Does an Employer Have to Offer Reasonable Accommodations?

Before firing you while you're on disability leave—or not reinstating you to your position after your disability leave ends—your employer has to try to "accommodate" you; that is, make the job suitable for you, given your impairments. For example, an administrative assistant with carpal tunnel syndrome might be able to meet a job's basic word processing and data entry requirements with help from voice-activated software.

Examples of ways an employer could accommodate your disability include:

• granting you more unpaid leave after you've exhausted your FMLA leave
• allowing you to work a flexible schedule, or
• making your workspace more ergonomic (for instance, giving you a sit-stand desk).

To protect yourself, if your employer wants you to return to work, it's best to request accommodations from your employer in writing.

How Does the Employer Decide What Accommodations to Offer?

Your employer must work interactively with you to try to come up with accommodations that would allow you to do your job. During discussions with your employer, you might need to compromise on the accommodations you asked for. Your employer only has to make accommodations that are reasonable and that won't cause the company "undue hardship." What constitutes undue hardship is based on the cost of the accommodations to your employer and the size of the company.

Can You Be Fired While on Disability?

If your employer has set up accommodations that would allow you to return to work, but you don't return, you can be fired.

Or, if you and your employer can't figure out any accommodations that are reasonable and that allow you to do the "essential functions" of your job, your employer can fire you. The essential functions of a job are the basic duties of a position—the tasks a person holding the job has to be able to do.

An employer doesn't need to keep an employee on who is unable to do the job's basic requirements. For example, a position loading and unloading trucks in a warehouse requires the ability to lift heavy boxes and maneuver a forklift. If an employee's disability prevents him from performing these essential job functions, the employer doesn't need to keep him in that position.

If, despite the best efforts of your employer to accommodate you, you still can't do the job, you can be fired. Read more about the accommodations process in the workplace.

But, if you were fired from your job even though you were qualified for it and able to perform its essential functions, you may have a discrimination claim under the ADA.

Can You Request Unpaid Leave as an Accommodation?

You can request unpaid leave as an accommodation for your disability, but keep in mind that it has to be reasonable and not cause undue hardship to the company.

Generally, your employer has to allow you to take unpaid leave if you're expected to return in a reasonable amount of time and to be able to do the job when you return (with further accommodations, if necessary). For instance, your employer may be able to claim undue hardship if:

• you're a key employee whose absence can't be covered temporarily by existing or new employees without great cost, or
• you ask for a lengthy leave without a definite return date.

Here's a good rule of thumb: If the cost or other consequences of allowing you to take additional leave (while saving your position for you) threatens the company's financial stability, your employer will probably be allowed to fire you. For further discussion on this, see our article on getting time off work as a reasonable accommodation.

What Can You Do If You're Fired While You're on Leave?

If you were let go while on disability leave—FMLA or not—speak to a disability or employment lawyer. You may have a claim for wrongful termination against your employer under the FMLA or ADA. Before you sue your employer, you'll need to file a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

If you're considering suing your employer for wrongful termination, consider talking to an experienced employment lawyer. A lawyer can help you negotiate with your employer or file an administrative complaint with the EEOC.

A lawyer can also help you assess the facts and decide how to proceed. In many cases, the key will be to prove that you were fired because of your disability—and not because of your performance, your conduct, or your employer's financial situation. A lawyer can use a set of legal tools (in a pretrial process called "discovery") to gather information from your employer.

_{Updated September 8, 2023}