Legal Question in Medical Leave in California

Re: Terminated After Paternity Leave

Assuming you were eligible for FMLA leave , the employer is required to allow you to return to your job and refusal to do so violates state and federal law, unless you were fired for good cause.

You should run the facts by an experienced employment law attorney in your area to determine whether you should file a claim with the Dept. of Fair Employment and Housing, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, write a demand letter to the employer or explore any other options available to you.

Re: Terminated After Paternity Leave

Options are to find another job, and to see IF the termination can be shown to be 'retaliation' or 'failure to comply with the leave law'. While it looks suspicious, evidence is required to win a lawsuit. Do you have anything else as evidence of their intent in this? Comments, or anything that would show they were unhappy with you taking leave? Just on the face of it, IF you were a protected employee entitled to the leave [which you must have been or they could have denied it], then at the minimum, I would think I could get you some reasonable informal severance or 'settlement' from them to avoid suit. If you really have enough facts to support suit, then you could pursue it. Feel free to contact me if serious about this. I've been doing employee rights litigation for about 30 years.