If you go into a rehab treatment facility and get out, can your employer not have you come back to work even though your doctor gives you the OK with no restrictions?
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If you go into a rehab treatment facility and get out, can your employer not have you come back to work even though your doctor gives you the OK with no restrictions?
And also wants to put you on disability?
Asked on February 9, 2016 under Employment Labor Law, New York
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 8 years ago | Contributor
No, it would be illegal disability-based discrimination (addictions are treated as disabilities for this purpose) to not let you come back to work because you were in rehab, if you are now able to work. It's also illegal to put you on disability if you are not in fact disabled. d on what you write, you seem to have a viable claim: you could talk to the state equal/civil rights agency or the federal EEOC about filing a claim, or to a private employment law attorney about filing a lawsuit.
Note that if you relapse and use any intoxicating substance at work, are intoxicated at work, or have poor performance due to substance use, you may be terminated legally for those reasons, since they are about what you do at work, not about whether or not you have an addiction.
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