Can I eSign California Leave of Absence Agreement

Initial leave of absence agreement

so for bigger companies they'll have a handbook that should express short-term disability long term disability and your FMLA rights not everybody has that if you're in a smaller company for example under 50 employees you probably don't have FMLA rights you may not have an employee handbook you may not have the right to a leave of absence legally but every company allows some degree of a leave of absence so let's talk about the bigger companies first because that's more defined by laws so you're entitled to with a doctor's certification you're entitled to submit a doctoral certification that you're in my words not fit for duty there you have a medical condition whether it's anxiety whether it's depression whether it's physical whether it's related to work are not related to work which makes you not fit for duty you have the right to submit that request an FMLA leave of absence and get up to a minimum of 12 weeks now many companies go much longer than 12 weeks for short-term disability or at least a medical leave of absence they'll go to six months some companies up to one year it's not guaranteed but look at that employee handbook and determine whether or not what your rights are by providing the medical certification that's the first first step secondly you need to then while on a leave of absence continued to to update through medical certification what your status is and a report on your medical status now whether you get paid on a leave of absence there's a whole nother story the company may or may not have a short term disability or long term disability leave of absence policy the FMLA does not speak to whether you get paid or not only that you're still entitled to maintain your benefits like health insurance whether you get paid or not you may have what they call you know extended PTO you probably have to use all your paid time off or vacation time first then you may be eligible if there is a stated policy if and only if there's a stated policy for short-term leave of absence for a period of time and usually if there is long-term leave of absence that's insured through one of these insurance companies under a long-term disability policy and you need to file an application at the conclusion of the short-term disability with the long term disability policy holder like Liberty Mutual or Union unum or some such other company that that may be out there for your long term disability benefits and it's only up to the insurance company as to whether or not you will continue to get paid then at some point you have to then certify to come back to work your doctor has to give you a release saying you know you're you're able to return to work at some point the company might be legally in its rights to be able to terminate you even though you're on a leave of absence and even if and this is a very surprising fact for a lot of people even if your leave of absence is because of a work-related injury the company may be able to say I can't maintain your job open at this point we have to fill your job so once you're past a certain point usually twelve months for FMLA six months under some company's policies once you've crossed over that line you'll probably get a notice saying unless you can return to work by such and such a date we're gonna have to fill your position and terminate your employment probably legal for the most part as long as they've waited long enough that and even if it's a work-related injury which comes as a surprise to people so getting healthy and then negotiating your way back is a key to maintaining their job rights [Music] [Music]