Terminated During Short Term Disability

[kmsamba]

My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: New Jersey.

Background:
1. I had scheduled a Surgery on April 2 and had provided that I will be out of office for atleast 3 weeks - i did not have concrete days as the surgeon informed that he will not be able to provide until the surgery and post surgery visit.

2.Company Short Term Disability Policy- indicated that before the benefits commence, I will have to utilize 5 days from my Vacation/Sick Days and also indicated that initial approved claim is till April 16.

3: On April 14 (12 days after my surgery) I visited my surgeon for my scheduled post surgery appointment and he informed me that I take rest and based on condition I can resume work on first week of May and had scheduled 2nd follow-up visit visit for end of April.

4. The surgeon office faxed all the reports to the short-term insurance company on April 14 and the insurance company acknowledged the receipt and informed that their claims manager will review it and they have 5 days to respond.

5. On April 17 my employer called me and indicated that I lost my job as a company layoff. Employer informed that they have not received any updated information from short-term-disability insurance company - and the only information they had in file at that time, was I return to work on April 17.

6. I explained the situation to my employer that - I was not be able to return to work due to health reasons and as had originally applied for atleast 3 weeks leave and the surgeon had provided the information to the insurance. But the employer indicated that they have the right to terminiate.

Question -

1) DId the employer have the right to terminate me during short-term disability?

2) I had not applied any FMLA during my short-term-disability explicitly.
Is there any law that FMLA and short-term-disability automatically runs in parallel? If yes, then since FMLA guarantees the job and (short-term-disability doesnot) - i need not have lost my job.

Thanks
KM Samba

[cbg]

FMLA does NOT protect you from a layoff that would have occurred regardless of your leave. If you would have been laid off regardless of whether you took medical leave or not, it doesn't matter whether you were on FMLA or not.