Fired While Healing: What Florida Law Says About Termination During Disability Leave

Taking medical leave should not feel like gambling with your job. Yet many employees in Palm Beach Gardens quietly wonder, while filling out paperwork for surgery or an ongoing medical condition, whether their position will still exist when they return. The honest answer is that it depends heavily on the size of the employer, the nature of the leave, and how the termination is framed.

The Legal Backdrop: ADA and FMLA Work Together, Not Interchangeably

Two federal laws typically govern this situation, and they are often confused for one another. The Americans with Disabilities Act, under 42 U.S.C. § 12112, prohibits employers with 15 or more employees from discriminating against a qualified employee because of a disability, and requires reasonable accommodation, which can include leave, unless doing so would impose an undue hardship on the business.

The Family and Medical Leave Act, separately, guarantees eligible employees of covered employers up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job protected leave for a serious health condition, along with reinstatement to the same or an equivalent position afterward. An employee can be protected under one law, both, or in some cases neither, depending on how long they have worked for the employer and how many people the company employs.

When Termination Crosses the Line

An employer is generally permitted to terminate an employee during or after medical leave if the decision is based on legitimate, non-discriminatory business reasons that would have applied regardless of the leave. What is not permitted is termination motivated by the disability itself, by the fact that the employee requested accommodation, or by retaliation for having taken protected leave.

Warning signs that a termination may be unlawful include:

• Being let go shortly after disclosing a diagnosis or requesting accommodation
• Sudden negative performance reviews with no prior documented issues
• A position being eliminated only for a similar role to reappear soon after
• Being denied light duty or modified schedules that similarly situated coworkers received
• Comments suggesting the employee’s condition was viewed as a liability

Timing Alone Is Not Proof, But It Matters

Courts often look closely at the timeline between a leave request and the adverse action. A termination that follows closely on the heels of a medical disclosure does not automatically prove discrimination, but it is the kind of detail that can shift how a case is evaluated, especially when paired with inconsistent explanations from the employer.

According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, disability related charges remain among the most common categories of workplace discrimination complaints filed nationwide each year, underscoring how frequently this issue arises in practice.

If you were terminated during or shortly after taking medical leave for a disability, do not assume there is nothing to be done. Our Palm Beach Gardens disability discrimination attorneys can evaluate whether your rights under the ADA or FMLA were violated. At Sconzo Law Office, we regularly help employees throughout South Florida hold employers accountable for unlawful termination connected to disability and medical leave. Contact us today to discuss what happened.

Source:

eeoc.gov/statutes/americans-disabilities-act-1990