Leave of Absence & FMLA Attorneys in Pasadena, California

If you need to take time off from work to recover from a disability or injury, but you’ve exhausted your CFRA leave (or your CFRA leave and PDLL leave combined), you may still be entitled to reasonable accommodation as a leave of absence.

As a result, you generally cannot be fired because you are out of CFRA leave and only need a few more weeks to recover from an injury or medical condition to return to work with or without reasonable accommodations.

If you’ve been fired or had your rights violated for requesting or taking protected disability leave, we encourage you to consult with an experienced leave-of-absence attorney at Domb & Rauchwerger and explore your legal options.

Paid Sick Leave

Generally, once you’ve worked for your California employer for at least 30 days within one year, you are eligible for at least three paid sick days, or 24 hours, depending on how many hours per day you typically work. Certain counties or cities require employers to provide their employees with more paid sick days.

Paid sick days or hours can be used starting on your 90th day of employment for either the diagnosis, care, or treatment of an existing health condition or preventative care for:

• Yourself
• Your biological, adopted, or foster child
• Your biological, adopted, or foster parent
• Your spouse or domestic partner
• Your grandparents, grandchild, or sibling
• A designated person

Employer Distribution of Sick Leave 

Your employer can front-load your sick time, giving you all three days at the beginning of each year, or they can have you accrue sick time at a rate not less than one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. 

If your employer uses the accrual method, they may cap the paid sick leave you can earn for six days or 48 hours. 

They can also limit your use of paid sick leave to 24 hours or three days in a given year, even if you’ve accrued more than that amount. Again, certain counties or cities may provide additional paid sick leave days. Lastly, your employer is not required to pay you for unused sick time upon the end of your employment.

Other Types of Leave

Depending on the size of your employer, California law may offer numerous other types of protection in particular situations, including, but not limited to:

• Bereavement leave
• Jury duty leave
• Military leave
• Leave for a victim of crime or abuse
• Leave to testify as a witness
• Leave for school activities
• Leave to attend drug and alcohol rehabilitation
• Leave for volunteering as a firefighter, police officer, or emergency personnel
• Leave to vote
• Literacy education leave
• Organ and bone marrow donation leave
• Civil air patrol leave
• Vacation pay

While California law doesn’t require your employer to provide vacation time, they cannot maintain a policy that forces you to give up your vacation time if you don’t use it in a certain period. These “use it or lose it” vacation policies are prohibited in California.

Your employer can cap the amount of vacation time you can accrue. In addition, any vacation time you’ve accrued must be paid out upon your termination or resignation.

An experienced leave of absence lawyer can take legal action against your employer if they’ve forced you to forfeit vacation time or failed to pay out the unused time you accrued.

California Paid Family Leave Benefits

Paid Family Leave benefits (PFL) allow you up to eight weeks of compensation to let you bond with a young child within one year of birth or placement in your home or foster care. You can also receive PFL compensation if you have to take time off to care for a seriously ill grandparent, parent, spouse, domestic partner, child, grandchild, or sibling.

Finally, PFL can be used to compensate an employee in connection with the covered active duty or call to duty of an employee’s parents, spouse, domestic partner, or child. PFL is not a type of leave; it is only a method for employees to receive compensation that may be available when taking other types of leave. 

PFL benefits are typically 60% or 70% of an employee’s wages, depending on how much the employee earned. PFL differs from disability insurance compensation, which cannot be received simultaneously. 

Employer Liability for Illegal Actions 

Employers may violate the rights afforded to you under the CFRA, FEHA, and other state laws regarding leaves of absence in several ways. 

Fortunately, our firm can help you fight back against your employer if they commit one or more of the following violations:

• Denying a request for leave that you’re eligible to take
• Unlawfully changing your role upon your return to work
• Failing to provide the same or similar position when your leave ends
• Not paying for health insurance benefits while you’re on leave
• Retaliating or discriminating against you for taking protected leave
• Harassing you for taking leave
• Firing, demoting, or lowering your pay for taking leave

Situations in Which You Can Be Fired While on Leave

Unfortunately, certain circumstances allow your employer to discharge you while on leave. They may terminate your employment if you’re subject to a company-wide layoff or take leave that isn’t protected by California law.

In addition, if you’re one of your company’s 10% highest-paid employees, your employer can deny you reinstatement of your job when your leave ends, but only if your return would cause the company significant financial hardship.