Medical / Disability Leave
As an employee, you have various rights for taking time off for medical or disability issues. Your rights depend on several things like the size of your employer and the reason you need to take time off. Below are some basics regarding your rights in Arizona.
Injuries at work
All Arizona employers with one or more employees are required to carry workers’ compensation insurance. If you are injured or get ill on the job, you can get medical benefits and compensation for time off.
Earned sick time
The Arizona Fair Wages and Healthy Families Act requires all employers to pay you for some amount of sick time. You can earn and build up one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked.
Illness or other medical reasons
The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is a federal law that allows you to take unpaid leave from work for certain reasons. FMLA time off is unpaid.
However, if your employer offers paid time off, such as vacation pay, they can require you to use it while on FMLA. You can also request to use your paid time off and your employer cannot refuse your request.
FMLA does not apply to all employers. To have FMLA protection, you must:
- Work for a company that has 50 or more employees within 75 miles of your workplace.
- Have worked for your employer for at least one year before taking the FMLA leave (previous employment with the employer in the past seven years counts).
- Have worked at least 1,250 hours (about 25 hours per week) in the past 12 months.
You can take FMLA for the following reasons:
- To recover from your own serious health condition that prevents you from performing the essential functions of your job.
- To care for a child, spouse, or parent with a serious health condition.
- For the birth and bonding time of your child within one year of the birth.
- If a child is placed with you for adoption or foster care, within one year of the placement.
- For any “qualifying exigency” that arises if your spouse, son, daughter, or parent is on active duty (or has been notified of an impending call or order to active duty) in the U.S. National Guard or Reserves.“Qualifying exigency” is defined in the FMLA and includes such things as arranging different child care arrangements or taking time off to be with an active service member on rest and recovery.
- To care for a covered service member with a serious injury or illness if you are the spouse, son, daughter, parent, or next of kin of the service member. This FMLA leave is called “Military Caregiver Leave.” This FMLA leave can be for up to 26 workweeks during a single 12-month period.
Your employer can discipline or fire you if you miss work because of illnesses the FMLA does not cover.
The most common serious health conditions that qualify for FMLA leave are:
- conditions requiring an overnight stay in a hospital or other medical care facility.
- conditions that incapacitate you or your family member (for example, unable to work or attend school) for more than three consecutive days and have ongoing medical treatment (either multiple appointments with a health care provider, or a single appointment and follow-up care such as prescription medication).
- chronic conditions that cause occasional periods when you or your family member are incapacitated and require treatment by a health care provider at least twice a year.
- pregnancy (including prenatal medical appointments, incapacity due to morning sickness, and medically required bed rest).
How much FMLA time off am I able to receive?
The FMLA allows you to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave in an FMLA year.
The FMLA year may be the same as the calendar year, but it does not have to be. Your employer determines the FMLA year. If you have questions about your employer’s FMLA year, you should review your employer’s FMLA policy or ask your supervisor or an HR department representative.
The 12 weeks of leave per FMLA year is for all serious health conditions combined, not for each serious health condition.
This means that if you take 12 weeks of FMLA to have and recover from surgery, you are not eligible for any more FMLA protected leave in the FMLA year even if you have a different serious health condition.
FMLA does not require you to take the entire working day off.
Missing work at the beginning, during the shift, or leaving work early can be protected time off under FMLA, as long as you give your employer the right FMLA paperwork. Your employer cannot force you to take more FMLA time off than you need.
FMLA allows for “intermittent” leave.
Intermittent leave (or reduced leave) means you can take time off only when the health conditions flare up or only to attend doctor’s appointments and medical treatments. If you are on intermittent leave, you are required to notify your employer of your absence when you take intermittent FMLA leave.
How to apply for FMLA
To get FMLA, you must have certain paperwork filled out by your treating physician. Your employer should give you the paperwork to request FMLA leave after you tell them that you need to take time off.
The completed paperwork will help you and your employer determine if the health condition is a “serious health condition” covered by the FMLA. The paperwork will also show how much time off you need and when you think you will return to work.
Occasionally, doctors charge a fee to fill out the paperwork. The FMLA says you are responsible for paying this fee.
You must tell your employer as soon as you know that you need to take FMLA. If you know more than 30 days ahead of time, you must provide your employer with at least 30 days’ notice.
If you had health insurance benefits when you went on FMLA, your employer must keep you on your coverage.
However, you must pay your part of the health care premiums while on FMLA. If you do not pay your health care premiums, your employer can drop you from health care coverage while on FMLA.
The FMLA does not set a specific amount of notice you must give before returning to work.
Instead, your employer may have a written policy—such as requiring 24 or 48 hours’ notice or a doctor’s note—that you must follow. Upon return to work, you are entitled to the same job, or virtually the same job, with the same pay, benefits, duties, hours, and location.
What can I do if my rights have been violated?
Your employer cannot interfere with, discipline, or retaliate against you if you use FMLA.
Interfere means preventing you from taking FMLA. Discipline can be writing you up for missing work while on FMLA. Retaliate can mean firing, demoting, or failing to promote you because you took FMLA. Retaliation can also be when your employer does not give you the same or virtually the same job when you return to work from FMLA.
If you believe your employer is not treating you right because you have used your FMLA rights, here are some steps you can take:
Check your employer’s FMLA policy to determine who you should speak to and schedule a meeting.
If your employer does not have a handbook or written rule, talk to the people in charge of Human Resources at your job. If you do not know who that is, talk to your boss or supervisor.
Talk to your employer’s designated person and explain what happened.
In the meeting, explain why you feel you are not being treated right. Give your employer as many specific facts as you have. Listen to the employer’s explanation.
If, after speaking with your employer, you still think your employer has violated your FMLA rights, you can file an FMLA complaint with the Wage and Hour division of the U.S. Department of Labor. You must file an FMLA complaint within two years from the incident that violated your FMLA rights.
To file a complaint, you will need to:
Collect key details like:
- Your name and contact info.
- The company’s name, location, phone number, and your manager’s name.
- Type of work you did.
- Any additional information like pay stubs, time/attendance records that show your hours worked.
- Any additional information that you can provide such as copies of pay stubs, personal records of hours worked, or other information on your employers’ pay practices.
You may also file a private lawsuit in Federal or state court within two years from the incident that violated your FMLA rights. Individuals filing a private lawsuit should consult with and be represented by an attorney.
This topic can be complicated. You may want to talk to a legal professional for help.
This website shares general legal information. Some content may be simplified or may not reflect recent changes in law. If you need advice for your specific situation, you should talk to a legal professional.
This content was last updated on Oct 1, 2025.