It’s possible to terminate employees while they’re on medical leave — but extreme caution is needed. Here’s how one company did it and avoided legal trouble:
An employee asked for and was granted 12 weeks of FMLA leave. However, after about 10 weeks, she was told by her doctor that she would need extra time away from work.
When she informed her manager, the company terminated her. The employee wouldn’t have been able to return until almost a month after she ran out of leave.
However, the company did pay her health benefits for the full 12 weeks.
The employee sued, claiming she was fired after using only 10 weeks of FMLA leave.
The company argued that she wouldn’t have returned to work in time to keep her job anyway, and she wasn’t denied any benefit she would’ve received if it had waited 12 weeks to fire her.
Who won?
The court agreed with the company. It was undisputed that the employee’s doctor didn’t clear her to return to work until almost a month after she would’ve run out of leave. The company gave her all the benefits she was owed and had no reason to delay the termination.
Cite: Roberts v. The Health Association
