Legal Question in Employment Law in New York

Generally speaking, your employer may terminate your employment while you are out on leave but you will still be entitled to your medical benefits related to your injury.

Whether or not your employer can terminate you while out on disability leave depends on a couple of factors. First, if your employer is covered under the Family Medical Leave Act ("FMLA"), you must be provided with 12 weeks of unpaid leave during any 12 month period. Generally, covered employers are those with 50+ employees. If you were out for 6 weeks, then returned to work, you still have another 6 weeks of unpaid leave left under the act.

The second factor is your employer's actually employment policies. Some employers actually have formal employment policies which exceed the minimum required by state and federal law. If your employer has a formal policy which spells out how much sickness/disability leave you have available, then the employer is bound by the terms of that formal policy. This would also apply if you are subject to a collective bargaining agreement through a union -- the employer would have to comply with the CBA's terms.

If your employer does not provide you with formal disability leave, then it only has to hold your job for you for the 12 weeks of unpaid leave required by the FMLA. Note, if you regularly have to contribute towards your benefits while working, then you still have to do so while on FMLA leave.