Medical leave

[R. McDaniel]

i have a friend that lives in South Carolina that once worked for a large corp. She was on a medical leave from the job. She did not return back to work on the specified date on the leave form. There was a discrepency with the date by her supervisor and she took it upon her own judgement to return by the date she was entitled to regardless of the discrepency. She was terminated before she could return to work. Did the company have the right to terminate an employee that was still actively on medical leave?

 

[loku]

Since your friend did not return back to work on the date specified on the leave form, she probably lost the protection of the FMLA. You did not mention whether she gave the employer notice of her intent not to return on the specified date. If she did not, that also may have caused her to lose her protection under the Act. However, since she did return “by the date she was entitled to,” it is possible she has a case for wrongful termination. A lawyer, specializing in employment law, would be able to give her an opinion on this.

However, the Wage and Hour Division of the Employment Standards Administration, U. S. Department of Labor administers the FMLA, and one option she has is to assume she was wrongfully terminated and put in a claim against the employer. She can get all the information necessary for the claim at http://www.elaws.dol.gov/fmla/wren/fc.htm.