Family Medical Leave Act (Fmla) California Family: Fill & Download for Free

Yes you can be fired from your job while you’re on disability leave. Since you appear to live in California, I will answer within the framework of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the federal law that guarantees job-protected leave for covered employees. (California state law, the California Family Rights Act, is virtually identical to the FMLA with regard to employee reinstatement rights.)As a general rule of thumb,It’s unlawful for your employer to fire you because you are on disability leave.It’s lawful for your employer to fire you while you are on disability leave, as long as the reason you were terminated has nothing to do with the fact you went on disability leave.Some lawful reasons to fire you that have nothing to do with the fact you went on disability leave include:You were already about to be fired at the time you went on disability leave.You were hired for a short-term project, and the project has been completed.Your department was eliminated as part of a corporate restructuring while you were on leave.You got caught up in a company-wide round of layoffs.The medical problem you went on leave for has left you unable to perform the essential functions of your job.The general rule of thumb doesn’t work in all cases. There are a few circumstances under which it is lawful to fire you because you went on disability leave.You’re not covered by the FMLA. (Usually, this is because you haven’t been working there long enough.)Your employer is not subject to the FMLA. (Usually, this is because the employer is too small)You obtained FMLA leave fraudulently.You are a key employee, and the job functions you perform are so essential that the company had to hire a replacement immediately.Rehiring you would work a substantial economic injury on the employer.

The simple answer is that they don’t demand it sufficiently and the US government doesn’t feel so inclined to require it.The more complex answer comes down to what Americans perceive as their relationship with the government vs. what Europeans do. It’s also very important to beware of simple explanations.I’m going to provide two of the largest reasons, but there are a lot more reasons (and some sub-sets of of the same) that include cultural attitudes on work, Leisure Time, the Meaning of Life, Religion, and Economics.How Europeans come about their perceptions about what is right and wrong government regulation is heavily influenced by:The rise of Communism and the fear that worker movements would topple entrenched monarchies.The Great Depression cum World War II (1929–1945).With the former, the monarchies assessed the movement afoot. They realized that if the people got too upset, they could see another French Revolution. So they began to pass regulations to temper those movements. Germany famously had a pensioner’s plan, disability, and vacation time back in the last decade of the 19th Century. This largely worked.After World War II, Europeans assessed (correctly, IMO) that the economic upheaval that lead to the horrors of that war needed to be corrected. Britain immediately provided the most far-sweeping socialist programs. France, Germany, Sweden and the rest crafted their own highly regulated plans. Most were rightly afraid of the communist empire to their east and that the continent could slip into war.Just as importantly, Europeans saw the importance of banding together (nationally) during the war. The need to lean on each other to survive the conflict crafted the idea that it was okay to have the government ensure a basic level of treatment that Americans found anathema. A lot of those cushy benefits were offered in a time when the European economies were collectively roaring (from about 1950–1975).Across the pond, as the war came to a close, the US was sitting on half the world’s wealth and a majority of its energy production. The Economy of the United States of America was really powerful and internally extremely competitive. The rise of communism around the world made Americans fearful of anything that smelled of Socialism. The flip-side to that is the Productivity in the US economy was such that employers were tripping over each other to hire workers. To attract them, they provided benefits beyond what most European workers received from their guarantees by the government (including vacation, pay and insurance).Things of course weren’t going to stay that way. By about 1980, everybody saw the writing on the wall. The population explosion had tapered off. The socialized, over-regulated economies weren’t doing as well as before. Because of that, Europeans leaned even more on regulation to ensure that nobody was left behind (though, even socialist François Mitterrand saw fit to sell off everything that wasn’t nailed down by 1992). In the US, the fear of government over-regulation kept the federal government out of it but for one big, sweeping regulation in 1993 (Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA)).The thought is that this is a matter for the individual states. I tend to agree with that. I don’t think the federal government should be mandating that. Let the states decide. None have (best as I know), though states like California and New York have various programs to guarantee Parental Leave that point towards the direction of what Europeans have (nothing as close, however).

The answers saying that they can do not state the law as it is in many states, particularly ones with high populations. More and more states — and cities — now require paid sick leave (differing amounts) and you cannot be disciplined for using it (at least in California).In addition some states, like California, have laws that are similar to, but broader than, the Federal Family Medical Leave Act and would encompass a serious illness. In addition, depending on your state, you may have rights under the state’s version of the Americans With Disabilities Act depending on the illness.NOTE: This response is not, and should not be, considered legal advice. You need to check the laws in your jurisdiction, and it could vary depending on the applicable law and the type of illness.Of course, it is idiotic for employers to make employees work when they are sick and infectious. I’ve always told subordinates to go home and not infect me and everyone else. Plus, they’ll recover and be at 100% faster. Some employers don’t “get” that.