Human Resource Blog

Employee return from temp disability

I am an employer in New Jersey. If an hourly w-2 employee is on short-term disability provided by the state, are they entitled to return to the same number of hours worked on average and the same clients? We provide consultation services to kids with disabilities, consequently if the student is making progress with a new consultant during the temp disabled employee, it does not seem in the best interest of the client to have the temp disability employee return to consulting with that client.

First of all, New Jersey temporary disability does not confer any particular rights to employees in terms of returning to the job. The only benefit this type of leave provides is partial replacement of lost income.

Most employees on New Jersey short term disability are also on FMLA. The federal Family and Medical Leave act permits employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave. The employer must inform the employee at the beginning of leave, that it is being counted as FMLA. An employee who is absent more than 12 weeks under FMLA can be terminated. In many cases, when a New Jersey employee is on short term disability for more than 12 weeks, he or she loses the job, while maintaining the short term disability benefits.

The employee on FMLA is entitled to be returned to his or her job. If that is not possible, then the employee is entitled to a job with the same benefits, hours, wages, working conditions, etc. In this case, the employee would be entitled to work the same hours and shifts, and entitled to the same wages as before the leave. The employee must do the same type of work (providing services to kids with disabilities) however, there is no provision that the employee work with the same clients as he or she did before the leave. As long as the employees income was not affected, she could be assigned to a different group of clients in the same location.

This answer would be the same if it applied to an exempt employee.

New Jersey has a family leave act, but it does not apply to the employees own illness.