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In New York state is it illegal to terminate an employee if he has a non-work-related injury with doctors note?

Maybe yes, maybe no. It depends upon a number of factors. New York has no significant family leave law, so the federal law applies.

Employers can legitimately terminate an employee for missing too much time from work. Suppose Carl gets a splinter in his finger, and has to have it removed by a doctor. He takes 4 days off work. If Carl has missed a number of days in the past, the employer could legitimately terminate him. In workplace slang, Carl is “milking” his injury for extra time off.

Most employees are entitled to 12 weeks of unpaid leave when they have a serious health condition under FMLA, the federal Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993. If the employee’s injury is covered, then he or she cannot be terminated. However, the FMLA applies only to employers with 50 or more workers within 75 miles.

Not every injury is a serous health condition. An employee might not be entitled to extended FMLA leave for a cut that required 4 stitches, for example. (In most cases, the employee would be entitled to time off to go to the doctor under FMLA.)

If you’d like to provide more details of the situation in another question or a comment, we could provide a more specific answer.