Legal Question in Disability Law in California

Yes the employer can lay you off while you are on medical disability, but only if the lay-off would have occurred in due course without regard to your medical disability. That is, the anti-discrimination laws require equal treatment, not preferential treatment, with one exception. A disabled person is to be given priority to fill a vacancy if doing so would be a reasonable accommodation of the disability.

I see individuals laid off or fired during their medical leave status, but employers are wary of provoking an employee by such action. The lay-off often occurs the day the employee is released by her doctor to return to work. The issue in these cases is exactly the one already stated: was the lay-off or firing substantially motivated by the medical leave status, even if other non-discriminatory factors were also at play -- such as the general need to reduce costs by lowering headcount?

This question is answered legally by a careful examination of the truthfulness of any pre lay-off performance evaluations or warnings, and a comparison of your work and qualifications compared to your peers performing the same kind of work, but not on medical leave and not selected for lay-off. This is called the "disparate treatment" proof of discrimination.