Can you tell me my rights in TX for an emloyee with over 8 years with a company. I work for a company with several hundred employees. I was injured in March and have been out of work since 03-16-2004. I was terminted last week and told that they could not hold my position any longer than 3 mos. It has been 6 months since the injury and have been on disablity for 5 1/2 mos. The first 2 weeks were on vacation time. I reviewed my employee handbook and found no mention of NOT being able to hold a position for over 3 months. What are my rights in Texas for termination??

Even if you were on a protected job leave, such as that offered by the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the maximum amount of time off that is covered is 12 weeks. Texas doesn't have it's own leave act. So, your employer can terminate you after the period of time that you mentioned with one caveat....

If you have a disability (rather than an illness), your employer must not treat you differently than others without a disability who are out for the same amount of time. So, if your employer won't terminate someone out on leave for four months, and you have a disability, they can't terminate you until you've been out for four months.

Let me know if you have any other questions.