Returning to Work After FMLA Leave for a Disability

Employers covered by the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) must allow their employees to take time off for serious medical conditions and give them their old job back (or an equivalent position) when they return to work, with some important exceptions. If your employer refuses to reinstate you after you’ve taken FMLA leave for a disability and none of the exceptions apply in your case, you may be entitled to legal relief.

Preferably, you’ll want your return to work to go as smoothly as possible. Private short- and long-term disability insurance benefits can help you pay your bills while you’re away. Then, if (and when) you’re ready to come back, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires your employer to accommodate your disability. Knowing some basics about the laws that govern your rights when you return to work following FMLA leave can help make the process much easier.

What’s the Difference Between Short-Term Disability, FMLA, and ADA Leave?

Short-term (and long-term) disability insurance plans are popular employer-provided benefits that offer wage replacement for employees who need to take time off due to a serious medical condition. These plans are important tools to help you manage your finances during the period when you aren’t working, but they are no substitute for the legal protections afforded to you under the FMLA and ADA.

The FMLA and ADA are two laws that govern what employers can and cannot do when their employees with disabilities return to work. One major provision of the FMLA prohibits employers from firing you because you took leave, while the ADA states that your employer must provide reasonable accommodations to help you do your job when you return.

Getting Your Job Back When You Return From FMLA Leave

When you return from FMLA leave, you have the right to be reinstated to your former position (that is, to get your old job back) or to be given an equivalent position. (29 U.S.C. § 2614(a) (2026).) An equivalent position is one that is nearly identical to the job you held before taking leave in every important respect, including pay, benefits, duties, and working conditions. (29 C.F.R. § 825.215 (2026).)

Your employer can ask you to give notice before returning to work after FMLA leave, but as long as you give the required notice, your employer must put you back to work right away. But if you exhaust your FMLA leave entitlement—12 unpaid weeks each year—and still can’t come back to work, your employer doesn’t have to hold your job open for you or put you in the same position once you’re ready to return.

There are a few exceptions to your general right to reinstatement on returning to work after disability leave. Your employer can refuse to give you your job back in any of the following situations:

• You would have lost your job even if you hadn't taken FMLA leave (for example, because your entire department was laid off).
• You took FMLA leave fraudulently (say you lied about your health condition or falsified your medical certification).
• You're a "key employee," meaning you’re one of the highest-paid 10% of your company's employees within 75 miles of your work site, and bringing you back on payroll would cause the company "substantial and grievous economic injury." (If you fit within this exception, your employer must notify you before your leave starts.)
• You can't perform an essential function of the job.

Essential functions are the duties that are central to the job, not side tasks that aren't a core part of the job. If you can perform the essential functions of your job with reasonable accommodations, you may be able to get your job back.

Getting Your Pay Restored When You Return to Work After FMLA Leave

When you get your job back after FMLA leave, you're entitled to the same pay you received before you took time off. (29 C.F.R. § 825.215 (c)(2026).) This includes your hourly wage or salary, as well as getting back the same opportunities to earn additional pay that you had before your FMLA leave, including commissions, bonuses, overtime, and potentially any promotions or raises that you would have received if you weren't out on disability leave.

Annual Cost-of-Living (COLA) Raises

You're entitled to any automatic raises you would've received if you hadn't taken leave. For example, if your company gives employees annual raises to help them keep up with the cost of living, you're entitled to the same raise, even if you were out on leave when it went into effect.

Raises That Aren't Automatic

If a raise isn't automatic but is instead based on performance or seniority, you must be treated the same as employees who take unpaid leave for other reasons. The same is true of bonuses.

For example, if you don't meet the target performance, attendance, or other criteria for earning a bonus because you're out on FMLA leave, your employer doesn't have to give you the bonus unless they give it to other employees who miss the target because they're out on another type of unpaid leave.

Receiving Benefits When Taking Time Off for a Disability

One of the advantages of taking FMLA leave is that the law gives you the right to keep your group health insurance while you're off work. (29 U.S.C. § 2614(c)(1) (2026).) Your employer must continue paying its usual share of the premium while you’re on leave, but you must pay your usual share as well. (Your employer can cut off your benefits if you're more than 30 days late paying your share of the premium.) However, you don't have to keep your group health plan when you're on FMLA leave if you don't want to.

If your health benefits stop for any reason while you're on FMLA leave, your employer must restore them when you return to work, even if you missed some premium payments. Your employer can't require you to wait for open enrollment, take a physical, or requalify for benefits as a condition of restarting your health plan.

When you return to work after taking FMLA leave, you're entitled to have all your employee benefits restored at the same levels, subject to any company-wide changes that took place while you were out. For example, if the company changed its life insurance plan, you aren't entitled to return to the old plan, but you can join the new one that you'd have moved to if you hadn't taken leave.

FMLA Return to Work Guidelines

Under the FMLA, both you and your employer have certain rights and responsibilities surrounding your use of FMLA leave.

What Your Employer Must Do After Receiving Your FMLA Request

When you first submit the paperwork for FMLA leave, your employer has five business days to notify you and let you know whether or not you're eligible for FMLA leave. (29 C.F.R. § 825.300 (2026).) The notice must contain the following information:

• an explanation of why you aren’t eligible for FMLA (if you aren’t)
• any medical fitness certification requirements you’ll need to provide
• a description of your right to use paid leave (sick pay, vacation, and PTO) during your time off and whether you'll be required to use it during your FMLA leave
• an explanation of your right to keep your health benefits while you're off work and whether you'll need to make premium payments during FMLA leave,
• a discussion of your right to return to your job at the end of your FMLA leave, and
• a definition of the 12-month period your employer uses to keep track of annual FMLA leave.

The annual leave period that your employer uses can be calculated in several ways, which could include the calendar year; the 12-month period from the first time you take leave; a fixed year based on a specific date, like your hire date or work anniversary; or a rolling 12-month period measured backward from the date you use FMLA leave.

Guidelines for Employees Before and After FMLA Leave

You're required to provide timely notices and reports to your employer regarding your FMLA leave and return to work, including:

• 30 days' notice that you need to take FMLA leave if it’s for a planned event like non-emergency surgery or childbirth
• as much notice as possible if you need to take leave unexpectedly, like for an emergency medical procedure or sudden illness
• enough information in your request for leave that your employer will be aware that your leave is likely to be covered by the FMLA
• if your need for FMLA leave changes while you're off work, notifying your employer right away (for example, you recover faster than expected from an injury)
• any periodic updates that your employer requires regarding your recovery status and your intent to return to work, and
• completing a fitness-for-duty certification, if your employer requires one, before returning to your job.

Fitness-for-duty certifications are written statements from your health care provider saying that you can go back to work. Your employer can ask for one to make sure that it’s safe for you to return to work. They can also ask for an assessment of your ability to perform the essential functions of your job by your health care provider.

Your employer must notify you if you need a fitness-for-duty certification before returning to work. This information should appear in the written notice your employer gives you that says your time off qualifies for FMLA coverage. If your certification must include an assessment of your ability to perform essential job functions, your employer must also give you a list of which functions must be assessed along with the notice.

What If You're Unable to Return to Work After FMLA Leave?

The FMLA protects your job for up to 12 weeks of medical leave. After that, if you don't return to work, you might lose your job. But if you take FMLA leave and you still can't do your job when your leave is up, you may have additional protections under the ADA. If the health condition that qualifies you for FMLA leave also counts as a disability under the ADA, your employer can be required to provide reasonable accommodations that make it possible for you to do your job, as long as they don’t create an undue hardship (significant difficulty or expense) for the employer. (42 U.S.C. § 12111(10) (2026).)

What If You Have Trouble Doing Your Job?

If you can't perform the essential functions of your position, your employer isn't required to reinstate you under the FMLA. But if a reasonable accommodation would allow you to perform those functions, your employer might have to provide it under the ADA.

For example, let's say you took FMLA leave from your job as a cashier to recover from back injuries you suffered in a car accident. After 12 weeks off, you try going back to work, but you’re unable to stand for more than an hour. If your employer allows you to sit on a stool while you ring up customer purchases, that would be considered a reasonable accommodation.

Examples of Reasonable Accommodations Following FMLA Leave

There are lots of ways an employer can accommodate an employee with an ADA-protected condition. For instance, if you can't return to your former position, you might be entitled to a transfer to a different position.

Additional time off can also be a reasonable accommodation under the ADA. Generally, employees aren't entitled to open-ended leave. But if you need a set amount of leave and your employer can provide it without undue hardship, that might be a reasonable accommodation under the ADA. Other examples of reasonable accommodations include schedule changes or even switching to part-time work.

Your employer is legally required to engage in an “interactive process” with you when discussing reasonable accommodations—and the bar for an accommodation to be considered an undue hardship is high—so you can get creative with your request. As long as the request doesn’t fundamentally alter the nature of the business (such as a theater usher with poor eyesight who asks for the dim lights to be turned up) or is so cost-prohibitive that it would exceed the company’s budget for the year, it will probably be considered reasonable under the ADA.

What Happens If You Choose Not to Return After FMLA Leave?

FMLA reinstatement protections don’t apply if you voluntarily choose not to return after your leave is up, and there can be financial repercussions for not returning to work if you've fully recovered from your illness. Your employer can require you to pay back the portion of any insurance premiums the company paid while you were on FMLA leave, for example.

Most employers will treat an employee who doesn’t return to work after their FMLA leave is up as having voluntarily resigned from their job, meaning that you might not be able to qualify for unemployment benefits (depending on your state). You’ll probably also lose your employer-provided health insurance coverage, although separation from your job will be treated as a “qualifying event” for purposes of getting COBRA coverage.

What If Your Employer Won't Reinstate You After FMLA Leave?

Returning to work after an illness or short-term disability is your right under the FMLA. If your employer refuses to reinstate you or penalizes you in some other way for taking FMLA leave, you have the right to sue to be reinstated and recover damages (money) for your losses. For more information, check out our article about what you can win in an FMLA lawsuit.