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Below is an example of an actual medical note which is likely insufficient in order to put the employer on proper notice of you need for medical leave under FMLA, CFRA, ADA or FEHA. There are two main issues with this medical note: First, even though it states that the employee has "several medical condition", it doesn't identify any such conditions. It would be helpful to the employer if the doctor who wrote this note was a little more specific about the nature of his patient's condition and the resulting limitations. The second issue that it doesn't firmly excuse the employee from work for certain dates. "... prevent her from appearing" is not the same as "unable to report to work between (date) and (date). You should not hesitate to review or have an attorney review the medical note you receive from your doctor, which you plan to transmit to your employer in order to have your medical leave approved, in order to make sure that it is sufficiently specific and complete.
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Recently, I have been running over and over into the same issue: an employer creates a leave policy which makes sense to them but is absolutely incompatible with the California laws on disability leave and FMLA/CFRA. For example, a typical employment policy in a handbook or employee manual might state that if an employee doe not report illness within 24 hours or if he doesn't provide medical certification within a day or two of taking time off, he will be considered terminated or he will be considered to have abandoned his job. This kind of policy is a mine field for an employer, as it ignores the basic obligations of the employer underr California Fair Employment and Housing Act which mandates that an employee must notify his employer of his condition/disability within reasonable time, without imposing specific restrictions.
For obvious reasons due to certain circumstances, such as being hospitalized for instance, an employee might only be able to call or e-mail his employer directly or through his friends/relative (if the employee is unconscious or not mobile, for instance) and notify an employer of his condition without being able to provide medical paperwork within the time prescribed by the company policy. Terminating an employee, just because he didn't provide the medical certification documentation right on time virtually guarantees that the employer will be held liable for violation various disability laws, especially if the employer was put orally or otherwise on notice of the employee's medical condition, and if that employee had a serious illness or disability. Under federal law, leave taken for an employee's incapacity due to pregnancy, childbirth or related medical condition is governed by FMLA, just like leave for any other "serious health condition" of an employee. However, the CFRA (California Family Rights Act) expressly excludes an employee's incapacity due to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical condition. The federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provides job security to an employee who is absent from work because of the employee's own serious health condition or to care for a specified family members with serious health conditions, as well as for the birth of a child and to care for a newborn child, or because of the placement for adoption or foster care of a child with the employee. |
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