My son, 23, worked about 3 months after college before he was badly injured in a car accident. His company had informed him after the accident that his position will be on hold and he will be on medical leave until his health condition would allow him to come back to work. Unfortunately, he was not able to go back to work yet, due to unsuccessful third surgery on his knee. He still is suffering from pain and inability to bend his knee. Today, he received a letter from his company that he was terminated -- "your position is one that has been cut effective January 3, 2002. Although we kept it available for you as long as we could, as we told you early on after the accident, we would not be able to hold it open if our business needs dictated that we could longer reasonably do so."

We assume that termination of our son was wrong, because he was not a financial burden for the company. Right?

Rita Risser Replies:

If the company where your son worked has more than 50 employees, and he was out on leave for 12 weeks or less, then his firing may be illegal under the Family and Medical Leave Act. You should contact a local attorney or the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) www.eeoc.gov to file a claim. If his company was smaller than that, or he was out longer than 12 weeks, then probably his rights were not violated. Unfortunately, the law allows an employee who is temporarily disabled to be terminated under these circumstances, even though it is not fair.

If you're a manager or HR professional faced with the need to fire or lay off employees, we can help you be fair -- and avoid legal liability -- with the Fair Measures Layoff System and the Fair Measures Wrongful Termination Guide.