If you or a loved one has cancer, workplace protections including job protected leave and protection from discrimination help ensure you can prioritize the time and care needed for recovery without worrying about job security. For cancer survivors, workplace protections may help as you address challenges from lingering physical and mental impacts.

The Department of Labor is committed to providing workers living with cancer, their caregivers, and cancer survivors with resources to understand their rights during this difficult time.

In this guide, you’ll find more information on:

 

 

Taking Time off From Work

Federal and state protections and employer-provided leave benefits can provide you with the time you need away from work for cancer treatment, recovery, and care. If you or a loved one has cancer or is a cancer survivor, you may be eligible for one or more of the following:

 

 

Leave Under the Federal Family and Medical Leave Act

What You Should Know

  • Whether you have cancer or you’re caring for a family member who does, you may be eligible to take job-protected leave under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).
  • You may also be able to take time off from work when you or a family member is ill and receiving medical care prior to a cancer diagnosis or receiving ongoing care when the cancer is in remission.
  • The FMLA gives eligible employees the right to:
    • Take up to 12 workweeks of unpaid, federally protected leave in a 12-month period for certain family and medical reasons, including for a serious health condition.
    • Continued group health insurance. If your employer normally provides group health insurance coverage, then you have the right to continued coverage during FMLA leave on the same terms as if you had continued to work.
    • Job protection. When you return from FMLA leave, you will return to the same job or to one virtually identical in terms of pay, benefits, and other employment terms and conditions (including shift and location).
    • Protection against retaliation. The FMLA contains protections against retaliation for workers who exercise their rights under the law.

What You Can Do

  • Check your FMLA eligibility. To take FMLA, you will need to meet the FMLA’s eligibility requirements.
  • Consider whether you can use FMLA leave for your current situation. For example, you may want to take time off work to go with your spouse to discuss cancer treatment options with an oncologist. FMLA leave can only be used for certain qualifying reasons.
    • Use Fact Sheet #28P to learn about taking leave for your or your family member’s serious health conditions.
    • Use Fact Sheet #28O to learn more abut taking leave for mental health conditions.
    • If you’re unsure if the FMLA may apply to your situation, you may call the Wage and Hour Division’s toll-free helpline at 1-866-487-9243.
  • Learn more about using FMLA leave.
  • Talk to your employer about taking leave. You may be unsure of how to start a conversation with your employer about taking time off related to your or your family member’s cancer treatment, recovery, or care needs.
  • Contact the Wage and Hour Division with questions. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) is responsible for administering and enforcing the FMLA for most employees.
    • If you have questions, or you think that your rights under the FMLA may have been violated, you can contact WHD at 1-866-487-9243. You will be directed to the WHD office nearest you for assistance.

More to Know

  • You may also want to check out our FMLA fact sheets on employee notice requirements and employer notification requirements, which are also helpful at this stage in the process.
  • Medical certification. Your employer may ask you for information from your health care provider, or your family member’s health care provider, before approving your FMLA leave request.
  • Talk to your doctor, nurse practitioner, clinical psychologist or social worker, or other person who is providing health care services to you or your family.
    • Your employer must allow you at least 15 calendar days to provide enough information to show that you need FMLA leave for a medical reason.
    • You are usually entitled to more time to get information from a health care provider if you have tried to get a certification from a health care provider but were unable to get one completed in time because of circumstances that were not your fault.
    • Your employer cannot refuse a fax or copy of the medical certification, a medical certification that is not completed on your employer’s standard company form, or any other record of the medical documentation, such as a communication on the letterhead of the health care provider.
    • Use Fact Sheet #28G to learn more about certification of a serious health condition under the FMLA.
    • Visit our FMLA Forms webpage to find example forms, which you can have a health care provider fill out for you to provide certification to your employer.
  • Paid time off. If you have paid leave benefits where you work, you can use paid time off during FMLA leave, and your employer might require you to do so, if the circumstances fit.
    • For example, if you can use your paid sick leave when your child is sick, then you can use your paid sick leave when you are using FMLA leave to care for your sick child.
    • Or, you may be able to use paid vacation time during FMLA leave to take care of your sick parent.
    • You may also use FMLA at the same time as you receive short term disability or workers’ compensation benefits.

 

 

Leave Under State Family and Medical Leave or Temporary Disability Laws

What You Should Know

  • Your state may have family and medical leave laws or temporary disability laws that also provide protections.
  • State laws might provide more generous protections than under the federal FMLA. For example, a state law may provide—
    • wage replacement during your leave,
    • broader eligibility,
    • more allowable uses for taking leave, and/or
    • a broader range of people for whom you can take caregiver leave (e.g., some states permit leave to care for parents-in-law, or unmarried domestic partners).
  • If your condition is FMLA-qualifying and your state has paid family and medical leave, you may be able to use FMLA and state paid family and medical leave at the same time. This means you would receive some portion of your wages through the state benefit and the leave would also be protected under the FMLA. Paid leave taken for reasons that do not qualify for FMLA leave does not count against your FMLA leave entitlement.

What You Can Do

  • Contact your state’s labor office to learn about the rights you may have to take family, medical, or disability leave under state law.

 

 

Leave as a Reasonable Accommodation Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

What You Should Know

  • The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is the agency responsible for administering the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) employment provisions.
  • The ADA requires employers to provide adjustments or modifications—called reasonable accommodations—to enable job applicants and employees with disabilities to enjoy equal employment opportunities unless doing so would be an undue hardship (that is, a significant difficulty or expense). Under the ADA, an employer must provide a reasonable accommodation that is needed because of the limitations caused by the cancer itself, the side effects of the treatment, or both, barring undue hardship.
  • Some employees with cancer may need leave as an accommodation for doctors' appointments and/or to seek or to recuperate from treatment. An employer must consider an employee with cancer’s request to provide access to leave policies on equal terms as other similarly situated employees.
  • Also, under the ADA, an employer must consider providing unpaid leave to an employee with a disability as a reasonable accommodation if the employee requires it, and so long as it does not create an undue hardship for the employer. This is the case even when:
    • the employer does not offer leave as an employee benefit;
    • the employee is not eligible for leave under the employer's policy; or
    • the employee has exhausted the leave the employer provides as a benefit (including leave exhausted under a workers' compensation program, or the FMLA or similar state or local laws).
  • Employers may request medical documentation when the disability and/or need for accommodation is not known or obvious but are not required to do so to provide an accommodation. Documentation, if any, is sufficient if it substantiates that the individual has a disability and needs the reasonable accommodation requested.
  • Depending on the limitations the employee is experiencing and how these limitations affect the employee and the employee's job performance, other accommodations, such as periodic breaks, a modified work schedule, or workspace modifications, may also be appropriate.

What You Can Do

 

 

Paid Sick Leave for Federal Contractors Under Executive Order 13706

What You Should Know

  • Executive Order 13706, Establishing Paid Sick Leave for Federal Contractors (EO), requires certain employers that contract with the federal government to provide employees working on or in connection with the contracts with up to seven days of paid sick leave annually.
  • This paid sick leave can be used to care for yourself, a family member, or a non-family member if your relationship is equivalent to a family relationship.

What You Can Do

 

 

Paid Leave Provided by Your Employer

What You Should Know

  • Your employer may, but is not required to, provide you with paid leave.
  • If you have available sick time, vacation time, paid time off (PTO), etc., you may use that leave time, along with your unpaid, federally protected FMLA leave in certain circumstances so that you continue to get paid. Even if you do not choose this option, your employer may require you to use your accrued paid leave consistent with their policies.
  • Your employer must let you know if you are using federally protected FMLA leave at the same time as you are using employer provided paid leave.

What You Can Do

 

 

Protections Against Discrimination

Whether you have cancer, you’re recovering from cancer, or you’ve had cancer in the past, you have the right to be treated fairly in the workplace. You may be protected against discrimination under federal or state laws.

 

 

Prohibited Discrimination Under the Americans with Disabilities Act

What You Should Know

  • The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is the agency responsible for administering the ADA's employment provisions.
  • The ADA prohibits discrimination by private employers (with 15 or more employees) or state or local government employers against job applicants and employees with disabilities. The ADA’s nondiscrimination standards also apply to federal sector job applicants and employees under Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act.
  • The ADA does not include an exclusive list of conditions considered to be a disability under the act. An individual with a disability is defined in the ADA as someone who has "a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities; has a record of such an impairment; or is regarded as having such an impairment."
  • Depending on where you work, you may be protected from discrimination under federal, state and/or local laws.

What You Can Do

 

 

Prohibited Discrimination Under the Family and Medical Leave Act

What You Should Know

  • The FMLA contains protections against retaliation.
  • Your employer is prohibited from interfering with, restraining, or denying your FMLA rights.
  • An employer cannot retaliate against you for filing a complaint and cooperating with the Wage and Hour Division or bringing a private action to court.
  • An employer cannot interfere with FMLA rights by refusing to grant FMLA leave, discouraging an employee from taking FMLA leave, or engaging in manipulation to avoid its FMLA responsibilities (for example, changing your listed job duties to make it appear that you do not need to take leave).
  • The FMLA also prohibits an employer from discriminating or retaliating against employees or prospective employees who have used or have attempted to use FMLA leave. An employer may not use the taking of FMLA leave as a negative factor in employment actions, such as hiring, promotions, or disciplinary actions, and cannot count FMLA leave under no-fault attendance policies.
  • Your employer cannot retaliate against you when you go back to work. For example, your employer cannot transfer you to a different work location or reduce the number of hours you usually work because you used FMLA leave.

What You Can Do