First of all, are you still under a doctor's care? Have you been released to return to work? Since this is not a work related injury, you must be fully released, in other words, released by your doctor to return to full duty to draw unemployment benefits. As soon as this happens, whether or not you are on FMLA, you need to go on and sign up immediately on unemployment benefits. If it is not going to happen for a while yet, more than a few more weeks, go on and sign up for unemployment benefits anyhow. You will not be able to draw the unemployment benefits until you are fully released by your doctor to return to work, and you have presented yourself to your employer, and they have told you that you are being terminated. But you need to actually file very soon to set up your claim. If you wait several months, until you are fully able to work, and that turns out to be a long time, you may not have a claim, as they run based on the last two years, and as the quarter changes, you'll lose quarters of work. Set up the claim soon, then wait for your doctor to release you and begin to draw the benefits. They'll contact the employer, and get the details of your termination, though you of course should inform the employer when you are released. The employer is not the one who decides whether or not you receive unemployment benefits, and you should file quickly any time you are not employed and ready to work.
The employer is legally allowed to fire you as soon as the mandatory time is up on your FMLA, simply because you were not able to return to work. Or because, as this one said, he's concerned you'll have health issues on-going. It is only Worker's Comp, and work related injuries, where there is a "retaliation issue."
Under these circumstances you have, they can fire you, but they cannot keep you from being approved for unemployment once you are fully released and able to begin looking for other work. Being out of work for a medical reason is not considered misconduct, it is not considered something that you were able to keep from happening. You'll be asked to present proof to the unemployment system that you are now able, available and actively seeking work, a form for your doctor to complete, and then you've got a few weeks at something around $275 a week or less to go on while you seek other work.
Actually think of it this way. They're doing you a favor, because your job is going to hurt your recently injured back, and because the employer is a jerk, we've determined this, and besides, everyone of any age over about thirty doesn't need a job with heavy lifting involved anyhow.
THIS IS IMPORTANT! Having your doctor put restrictions on your ability to lift or carry or move is NOT going to be helpful to you at all. It will keep you from getting approved for unemployment. There is no upside, such as compensation for these permanent restrictions as you would get if it were a work related injury. What you need, at least for now, is a full release. Since your injury was not work related, and heaven knows I have seen many of these, you are pretty much on your own as far as what you do next.
You can work on your own, later, as you are drawing unemployment and trying to find another job, to rehab your back, to get yourself up to where you can do lots of work, and so you can, hopefully find a job where heavy lifting is NOT required! But for right now, what you are looking for from your doctor is not something saying you have to take it easy for many months, but that you are fully released and ready to go back to work.
Florida has a vocational rehabilitation services office, where they can provide you with counseling and work with you to help you get into something that does not require you to use your back to do your work. Don't be like the guy who told me "I guess I can never work again, the doctor told me not to lift over fifty pounds!" Which I told him I am fully employed, and plan to be, but I am never going to be able to lift 50 pounds as part of my job.
