ADA and FMLA: How Laws Work Together

Regardless of the type of job you have, if you need to take time off work because of your cancer diagnosis and treatment, you should learn about your employment rights. More people are familiar with the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which is the federal law that allows eligible employees to take time off work because of their own serious medical condition or to care for a spouse, child, or parent. The FMLA provides 12 weeks of unpaid leave, per year.

Most people don’t think about the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) as a way to take time off work. But they should. The ADA requires employers to provide eligible employees with reasonable accommodations in the workplace. A reasonable accommodation can include changes to work schedules, telecommuting, or even extended leave from work.

Now the FMLA and the ADA can actually work together.

For example, meet Jane. Jane has been undergoing cancer treatment. She has taken time off from work under the FMLA. She has almost used all 12 weeks of her FMLA leave and her doctor has not yet released her to return to work. She is concerned that she will lose her job if she tells her employer she will not be able to return to work when her 12 weeks of FMLA leave are up. It is possible that if Jane is also eligible for protection under the ADA, that she could ask for additional time off as a reasonable accommodation under the ADA, if it does not pose an undue hardship on the employer.

However, ADA case law has suggested that additional time off from work will only be considered a reasonable accommodation if the length of additional leave is for a definite period of time. Some recent cases have also shown that employers shouldn’t have rigid leave rules, but be more flexible with leave decisions on a case-by-case basis.

So, if Jane gets to the end of her FMLA leave and she calls her employer and says, “I would like more time off from work as a reasonable accommodation, but I don’t know when I will be able to return”- that is unlikely to be seen as a reasonable accommodation. But, if Jane calls her employer and says, “I would like three more weeks off work as a reasonable accommodation, because my doctor has released me to come back to work in 3 weeks” — that is more likely to be seen as a reasonable accommodation.

Before making decisions about working through treatment or taking time off work, it is important to get the facts and learn about your options, so that you can make educated decisions about what will work for you.

For more information about your employment rights, visit: http://TriageCancer.org/employment or read our employment-related blogs.