Legal Question in Employment Law in Pennsylvania

It certainly can be. FMLA (federal law - applies all 50 states) provides 12 weeks unpaid leave during which your employer must hold your job or a substantially similar job open for your return. That obligation ends after 12 weeks.

If your disability was due to a work injury that occurred in PA, or your work was located in PA, the PA WC system does not protect your job. But, it does create economic incentives for your employer to take you back (even if you are currently terminated).

Being sick, injured or disable does not provide you with unlimited job protection. It is not illegal for your employer to let you go if you can not do your job. Your employer cannot discriminate against you because of your disability. But calling an end to the relationship after holding it open for a period of time is not, in and of itself, discrimination.

If you could not return after 12 weeks but it was anticipated that you only needed a few more weeks, you might be able to argue that those few more weeks constituted a reasonable accomodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and that the failure to extend a few additional weeks violated that act.

By the way, if you have the ability to do some other work, no matter how limited, you should be able to receive unemployment compensation benefits. Your employer needs to be made known about your limited duty release before you apply. Your employer must advise you that it does not have work available within your limitations. Then you can apply for UC benefits.

As you can see, I am shooting arrows into the dark here because you provided a very direct question that needs more facts to be answered correctly. I would encourage you to talk to an employment lawyer in your area who handles employee cases. You should be able to find several such firms on the web. Ordinarily, case screening consultations are free. Here is a link to the results for a Google search in the Harrisburg area http://bit.ly/9OSxoG