I was a high risk pregnancy and ended up having my labor induced 2 weeks earlier than my due date of 1/20. A few days into my Short Term Disability my company let go my whole department and gave them all until the end of January. Seeing I was already out on STD/Maternity, legally does the company have to honor my leave until it's over and then terminate me? Or could they have cut off my leave on 1/31 which was the termination date for all of us? (I was entitled to 12 weeks of STD, with my doctors explanation, they say they were doing me a courtesy by giving me any of my leave and that they didn't have to) If anyone knows for sure about this I would really appreciate a reply.

Being on maternity leave does not protect you from an adverse employment action that would have happened anyway, and it sounds like this would have happened whether you were on leave or not. Most disability plans will continue to pay, but it's a matter of the terms of your policy. You'll need to review the plan documents you received. If you can't find them, ask your HR.

Ahh..okay. Well thank you for letting me know. I'm sure it's in the paperwork from HR that they don't have to.

Just as an FYI, I've been administering employer-sponsored benefit plans for 26+ years. I have never seen and only once heard of a plan where STD benefits stopped when your employment does.

However, Marketeer is correct. Not even FMLA, let alone STD benefits, protect you from a layoff that would have happened whether you were on leave or not. They do not have to keep you employed through the duration of your anticipated leave when the rest of your department is let go just because, by an accident of timing, you happened to be on medical leave when the department closed.

However, the odds are great that even though your job is gone, your STD benefits will continue until you would have been released to return to work.