Fired While on Medical or Disability Leave in California: When It Is Illegal

Short answer: In California, your employer cannot fire you because you took protected medical leave, and leave under the California Family Rights Act (CFRA) comes with a right to return to the same or a comparable job. A real layoff can still be lawful. If you show the employer refused to reinstate you and it blames a layoff, it must prove you would not otherwise have been employed on your return date.

At a glance

• Fired because you took CFRA or FMLA leave: not allowed. California bars discharge for exercising the right to family care and medical leave. Federal law bars retaliation for taking FMLA leave.
• Not given your job back when CFRA leave ends: generally not allowed. CFRA leave comes with the right to return to the same or a comparable position.
• Laid off during leave in a real layoff: can be lawful. You have no greater right than if you had worked straight through.
• Fired because you cannot do the job: can be lawful. The disability law excuses a discharge when you cannot perform the essential duties (the main tasks of the job) even with reasonable accommodation.
• Filing: as of November 2026, a complaint to the Civil Rights Department is generally due within three years of the unlawful practice.

What people assume, and what California law says

Can you be fired while on medical leave in California?

Not because of the leave. California's medical leave law, the California Family Rights Act (CFRA), makes it an unlawful employment practice "to refuse to hire, or to discharge, fine, suspend, expel, or discriminate against, any individual because of" the individual's exercise of the right to family care and medical leave. That rule is in Government Code section 12945.2(k). Section 12945.2(q) bars an employer from interfering with, restraining or denying your use of the leave. Courts describe these as two kinds of claims. Interference means you were denied leave you were entitled to, or denied your job back at the end of it. Retaliation means you took the leave and were punished for it, for example by being fired.

CFRA leave covers your own serious health condition when it leaves you unable to do your job. You qualify with more than 12 months of service and at least 1,250 hours of service in the previous 12 months, if your employer "directly employs five or more persons". The leave runs up to "a total of 12 workweeks in any 12-month period". Our guide to California leave of absence laws has the full rules and how CFRA works with the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and pregnancy disability leave.

Do you have the right to your job back after leave?

Generally, yes. A CFRA leave is not treated as granted unless the employer promises you employment in the same or a comparable position when the leave ends. The statute defines that as a position with "the same or similar duties and pay that can be performed at the same or similar geographic location" as your old one. Getting your job back is called reinstatement. You also come back "with no less seniority than the employee had when the leave commenced", which matters for layoffs, recalls, promotions, job assignments and seniority-related benefits such as vacation.

The regulation, California Code of Regulations, title 2, section 11089, includes the line that matters most when someone else covered your job while you were out:

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"An employee is entitled to reinstatement even if the employee has been replaced or the employee's position has been restructured to accommodate the employee's absence."

If you and your employer agreed on a return date, the employer must reinstate you by that date. If the date changed, the regulation expects reinstatement within two business days, where feasible, after you tell the employer you are ready to return. An employer may require a note from your health care provider saying you can resume work, if it applies that policy uniformly.

When can an employer lawfully end your job during or after leave?

Leave is protection against being fired because of the leave. It is not protection against everything. A firing during or after leave can still be lawful in these situations:

1. A layoff that would have happened anyway. The CFRA regulation says: "An employee has no greater right to reinstatement or to other benefits and conditions of employment than if the employee had been continuously employed during the CFRA leave period." When an employer uses that rule to refuse reinstatement, it carries the proof. It must show, by a preponderance of the evidence (more likely than not), that you would not otherwise have been employed on the requested reinstatement date. That burden is not met if you were replaced or your position was restructured to accommodate your absence. See also when a layoff is wrongful.

2. You cannot do the job, even with accommodation. California's disability law does not stop an employer from discharging an employee who, because of a disability, "is unable to perform the employee's essential duties even with reasonable accommodations". It also covers an employee who cannot perform those duties "in a manner that would not endanger the employee's health or safety or the health or safety of others even with reasonable accommodations". Before that point, the employer has duties to you, covered below.

3. Fraud. An employee who fraudulently obtains or uses CFRA leave is not protected by CFRA's job restoration rules, and the employer must prove the fraud.

Employers also point to rules broken during leave. Richey v. AutoNation (2015) was an arbitration review involving an employee on medical leave who was dismissed for violating a written policy against outside employment. The California Supreme Court left open whether an employer's reasonable belief in such a violation is a defense under CFRA or the FMLA, an "unsettled question of law".

None of these lets an employer use your leave as a reason. If the "layoff" or the "policy violation" is a cover story, the firing can still be illegal.

What if the employer had a legitimate reason and your leave was also a reason?

Employers often claim a good reason alongside the bad one. The California Supreme Court addressed that for FEHA discrimination claims in Harris v. City of Santa Monica (2013), a pregnancy discrimination case.

1. A jury first finds that unlawful discrimination "was a substantial factor motivating a termination of employment".
2. The employer can then try to prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, that it would have made the same decision anyway.
3. If it does, a court may not award damages, backpay or reinstatement. "But the employer does not escape liability." The employee may still get declaratory relief (a court ruling that the conduct was unlawful) or injunctive relief (an order to stop it), and may be eligible for attorney's fees and costs.

Harris was a FEHA discrimination case. How it applies to a CFRA retaliation claim is a question for a lawyer looking at your facts.

Does your disability give you more protection than 12 weeks of leave?

It can. CFRA leave stops at 12 workweeks, and CFRA does not itself provide more. Its right to your job back covers up to 12 workweeks, so any protection after that comes from the disability rules. If the condition behind your leave is a disability, FEHA adds three duties that do not end when CFRA or FMLA leave runs out:

1. Reasonable accommodation. This is a change to the job or schedule that lets you do it. It is unlawful to fail to make one for a known physical or mental disability, unless it would cause undue hardship, meaning significant difficulty or expense for the employer (Government Code section 12940(m)).
2. The interactive process. This is the back-and-forth where you and the employer look for changes that would let you keep working. It is unlawful to fail to engage in "a timely, good faith, interactive process" to find effective accommodations when you ask for one (section 12940(n)). See failure to engage in the interactive process.
3. No retaliation for asking. It is unlawful to retaliate against you for requesting an accommodation, "regardless of whether the request was granted" (section 12940(m)(2)).

More leave can be the accommodation. A FEHA regulation, 2 CCR 11068(c), says holding a job open, or extending a leave under CFRA, the FMLA, other leave laws or an employer's leave plan, may be a reasonable accommodation if "the leave is likely to be effective in allowing the employee to return to work at the end of the leave" and does not create an undue hardship. It sets the limit too: "An employer, however, is not required to provide an indefinite leave of absence as a reasonable accommodation."

Hanson v. Lucky Stores (1999), a work-injury case under a union contract, applied that rule: "a finite leave can be a reasonable accommodation under FEHA, provided it is likely that at the end of the leave, the employee would be able to perform his or her duties." The employer won: it had already given leave nearly twice what the union contract required and had offered a reassignment. Leave past 12 weeks is possible, not automatic.

Without an individualized assessment, an employer may not require you to be fully healed before you return to work after an illness or injury. Pay and benefits after week 12 are covered in what happens when FMLA runs out in California. Our reasonable accommodation guide and disability discrimination page cover the rest.

Does the FMLA protect you if CFRA does not?

Usually not on employer size, because CFRA reaches smaller employers than the FMLA does. The federal FMLA gives an eligible employee "a total of 12 workweeks of leave during any 12-month period" and restoration to the old position or an equivalent one. The Department of Labor's rules say employers "cannot use the taking of FMLA leave as a negative factor in employment actions", or count it under no fault attendance policies.

The reason is coverage. The FMLA excludes an employee whose employer has fewer than 50 employees within 75 miles of the worksite. CFRA has no 75-mile test. A worker at a 12-person company can be covered by CFRA and not the FMLA. When both laws apply, the leaves run at the same time and together cannot exceed 12 workweeks in a 12-month period. Leave for pregnancy disability is excluded from that cap.

How do you know if the leave was the real reason you were fired?

Employers rarely announce the real reason, so courts look at the evidence around the firing. In Moore v. Regents of the University of California (2016), the Court of Appeal reversed summary judgment (a ruling that ended the case before trial) on her CFRA and disability claims, and upheld it on one FEHA retaliation claim. The employer had decided to eliminate her position two months after she said she would need time off for a surgery related to her heart condition. The court said pretext (a cover story for the real reason) "may . . . be inferred from the timing of the company's termination decision, by the identity of the person making the decision, and by the terminated employee's job performance before termination." An employer's "failure to follow its own policies or procedures may also provide evidence of pretext."

There is no fixed window for how soon after leave a firing can look retaliatory. Timing is one piece of evidence, and rarely the whole case. Signs worth a hard look:

1. You were fired soon after you returned from leave, or while you were still out.
2. You had asked for an accommodation shortly before the firing.
3. Others who did the same thing kept their jobs. Lawyers call those coworkers comparators.
4. The reason keeps changing. The explanation in the meeting, the letter and the unemployment claim do not line up.
5. Your "eliminated" job came back under a new title, or someone hired to cover your leave kept it.
6. Your leave days were counted as absences, or the employer skipped its own steps, such as warnings it uses for others.

See also California workplace retaliation laws.

A case we took to trial: Grant v. LA Metro

This is the firm's own case, and it shows how the claims above fit together.

Our complaint in Grant v. LA Metro alleged that Michael Grant, a bus operator with 32 years of service, was fired shortly after he returned from a protected medical leave, and shortly after the accommodations he had asked for were granted. Metro is a public transit agency, and claims against a public employer can involve extra steps. See our guide to wrongful termination for public employees.

According to the complaint, an angry passenger spat on Mr. Grant and he protected himself. Metro fired him, giving gross misconduct as the reason. Our complaint alleged that reason was pretextual, and that Metro had not fired operators without a history of disability for similar conduct.

The complaint pleaded three claims that map onto this article:

• disability discrimination;
• retaliation for taking medical leave (CFRA);
• retaliation for requesting an accommodation.

Metro did not settle this case early. We took the case to trial twice, and both trials ended in a hung jury, meaning the jury could not reach a verdict. After the second trial, Metro settled. Read the Grant v. LA Metro case page for the full story. Past results do not predict a future outcome.

Ready to talk it through?

If your firing came during or soon after a medical leave, a short call can sort out which of these rules fits your facts. Tell us what happened for a free, confidential review.

What about sick days, disability payments and workers' comp?

California law separately bars firing you for using accrued paid sick days (see California sick leave law). Pregnancy disability leave is its own track, with up to four months of leave and its own reinstatement rules (see pregnancy disability leave in California). A firing tied to a work injury claim can also raise a separate claim under Labor Code section 132a, which follows a different process.

State Disability Insurance (SDI) does not protect your job. The Employment Development Department (EDD) says: "Disability Insurance and Paid Family Leave provide wage replacement benefits only; they do not provide job protection." Your job may be protected under other leave laws, such as CFRA or the FMLA.

What can you recover if the firing was illegal?

Under California law, the relief can include lost pay, reinstatement, damages for emotional distress and, in an appropriate case, punitive damages. A court may also award reasonable attorney's fees and costs to an employee who wins. An employer that wins gets fees only if the court finds the case was frivolous, unreasonable or groundless. Under the FMLA, the categories include lost wages and benefits, interest, liquidated damages (an added amount) and equitable relief such as reinstatement. What is available depends on the facts, on which law applies and on whether the employer is a public agency.

How long do you have to file?

For CFRA and FEHA claims, the first step is a complaint with the Civil Rights Department (CRD) (formerly DFEH). As of November 2026, the deadline is three years "from the date upon which the unlawful practice or refusal to cooperate occurred". For a firing, that is generally the date of the firing. Filing an intake form with CRD counts as filing.

After CRD issues a right-to-sue notice, a letter that lets you file in court, you generally have one year from the date of that notice to file a lawsuit. A federal FMLA claim has its own clock: generally two years after the last violation, or three years for a willful violation.

Tolling, which pauses the clock, can change these periods. Under Government Code section 12960(f), the time to file a civil action is tolled while a CRD complaint is pending, until the CRD files its own action or one year after it closes its investigation. Our guide to important time limits for California employment law cases covers the general California deadlines and some exceptions to them. Deadlines can run early, so do not wait to get advice.

What should you do if you were fired during medical leave?

1. Get the reason in writing. Ask for the termination letter and keep every email about your leave, your return date and your accommodation requests.
2. Write down the timeline. List when you asked for leave, when it started, when you said you were ready to return, and when you were fired.
3. Keep your medical notes. Keep the doctor's notes and work restrictions you gave your employer, and when you gave them.
4. Find out who replaced you. If someone covering your leave kept your job, note it.
5. Be careful what you tell the EDD. If you apply for unemployment, describe what happened and stop there. Our advice: do not guess at the reason for your firing in your EDD statements. See whether you can collect unemployment after being fired.
6. Talk to an employment lawyer before you sign anything. A severance agreement can include a release of these claims. See what California law requires in a severance agreement.

Frequently asked questions

Can my employer fire me while I am on medical leave in California?

Not because of the leave. The California Family Rights Act makes it unlawful to discharge an employee because the employee used protected family care and medical leave. An employer can still end a job for a reason unrelated to the leave, such as a real layoff. If it refuses to reinstate you and blames a layoff, it must prove you would not otherwise have been employed.

Is it legal to be laid off while on medical leave?

It can be, if the layoff would have happened even if you had been working. You have no greater right to your job than if you had worked straight through the leave. But if the employer refuses to reinstate you on that basis, it must prove you would not otherwise have been employed. Replacing you or restructuring your position to cover your absence does not meet that burden.

What happens if I cannot return when my 12 weeks of leave end?

CFRA covers up to 12 workweeks. If your condition is a disability, your employer must still consider reasonable accommodation and engage in a good faith interactive process. Extra leave can be a reasonable accommodation when it is likely to let you return to work and does not cause undue hardship. An employer does not have to provide indefinite leave.

What is the 3-day rule for FMLA?

It is part of how the federal FMLA regulations define a serious health condition. One category covers incapacity of more than three consecutive, full calendar days with continuing treatment by a health care provider. It is not a waiting period before you are protected, and other categories, such as inpatient hospital care, do not use it.

How long do I have to file a claim after being fired on medical leave?

For a CFRA or FEHA claim, you generally have three years from the date of the unlawful practice, often the firing, to file a complaint with the Civil Rights Department (CRD), then one year after a right-to-sue notice to file a lawsuit. A federal FMLA claim generally must be filed within two years, or three for a willful violation. Exceptions can change these periods, so get advice early.

Where to start

If you were fired during or after a medical or disability leave, the firm reviews cases from anywhere in California. Deadlines can run early, so reach out for a free, confidential review. You can also read more on our wrongful termination page.

The Law Offices of Jonathan J. Delshad is a Los Angeles based employment law firm representing employees across California in wrongful termination, discrimination, retaliation, harassment, and wage and hour matters. Representing employees is the core of the firm's practice. Mr. Delshad serves as Editor-in-Chief of the California Wrongful Termination Law Review and trained at Latham & Watkins. Recognition includes Super Lawyers (2022 to 2027), Best Lawyers (since 2017), and an Avvo 10.0 "Superb" rating. Reviewed for California employment law accuracy. Last updated: November 13, 2026.

Attorney advertising. This article is educational only and is not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship, which exists only under a signed engagement agreement. Every case is different, and outcomes depend on the specific facts. Deadlines can run early, so consult a lawyer promptly about your situation.