Human Resource Blog

Iowa FMLA and Termination

If an employee who works for a union has exhausted his or her leave under FMLA, can the employee be terminated?

In Iowa, as well as many other states, if an employee has used all of their FMLA leave and is unable to return to work, he or she can be terminated.  This is true whether the employer is a union or not.

According to the federal Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, all employees are entitled to receive up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave if they have a serious medical condition.  Such conditions might include a heart attack or cancer, as well as a host of other medical conditions. 

FMLA leave can also be used to care for a parent, spouse, or child who has a serious medical condition.  It is also acceptable to use FMLA leave to bond with a newly adopted child, a newborn, or a new foster child.

Employees may lose their jobs, however, after they have used their entire 12 weeks of FMLA leave.  Most states do not allow leave that lasts longer than 12 weeks, and there is no federal law that prohibits this.

Termination might not apply if an employee with a current disability could perform his or her job with reasonable accommodations from the employer.  The reason for this is that the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 would require the employer to make the accommodations.

Some may think that it is unfair that workers might lose their jobs because of illness.  Before FMLA, however, workers were frequently fired for missing work for as little as two or three weeks.  Employers have to have people to perform jobs, and they simply cannot hold positions open for a year or more in hope that the employee might return.

If an employer has allowed other employees to extend their unpaid leave in the past, then they would have to allow current employees the same benefit.

It is important to note that some companies have policies of rehiring former employees.  No federal law requires this, but it is sometimes an option. JH