Yes, you can be fired for medical reasons in Texas, but only in certain situations. Texas is an at-will state, so an employer can generally end your job for almost any reason or no reason at all.1Texas Workforce Commission. Pay and Policies – General The exceptions matter here: the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, and Chapter 21 of the Texas Labor Code all limit what an employer can do when your health is part of the picture. Whether your firing was legal depends on your employer’s size, the nature of your condition, and whether your employer took the steps the law requires before letting you go.
When Firing You for a Medical Condition Is Illegal
The ADA is the broadest shield. It applies to Texas employers with 15 or more workers and prohibits discrimination against qualified employees with disabilities.2U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The ADA: Your Responsibilities as an Employer A disability is a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity such as walking, breathing, concentrating, or working. The definition also covers a history of a condition (cancer in remission, for example) and conditions your employer merely perceives you to have.3ADA.gov. Guide to Disability Rights Laws Firing you because your boss assumes your diabetes will cause attendance problems is disability discrimination even if your diabetes has never affected your work.
Texas has its own version of this protection under Chapter 21 of the Texas Labor Code, sometimes called the Texas Commission on Human Rights Act. It covers the same 15-employee threshold and lets you pursue a state-level claim through the Texas Workforce Commission alongside any federal claim.4State of Texas. Texas Labor Code Chapter 21 – Employment Discrimination
Your Employer Has to Try Accommodations First
When your condition affects your ability to do the job, your employer doesn’t get to jump straight to termination. The ADA requires reasonable accommodations: changes to the job or workplace that let you keep working. Examples in the statute include restructuring the position, offering a modified schedule, reassigning you to an open position, or providing modified equipment.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 12111 – Definitions
The EEOC calls this the interactive process. You describe the problems your condition creates, and your employer explores options with you.6U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Enforcement Guidance on Reasonable Accommodation and Undue Hardship Under the ADA An employer who skips the conversation and fires you has a real legal problem, because they never found out whether an accommodation existed. Employers can refuse an accommodation that would cause undue hardship, meaning significant difficulty or expense weighed against the company’s size and resources, but most accommodations cost very little, and this defense fails more often than employers expect.
Pregnancy and Pregnancy-Related Conditions
The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, effective in 2023, extends similar accommodation rights to limitations tied to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions. It covers employers with 15 or more employees.7U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. What You Should Know About the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act Common accommodations include more frequent breaks, a stool to sit on, temporary light duty, schedule flexibility, or telework. Two rules are worth knowing: your employer cannot force you to accept a different accommodation than the one reached through the interactive process, and your employer cannot push you onto leave when a different accommodation would let you keep working. Firing a pregnant worker rather than accommodating her typically violates both the PWFA and Title VII pregnancy-discrimination rules.
Firings Tied to Medical Leave
The FMLA protects your job while you handle a serious health condition, but the eligibility rules are stricter than the ADA. Your employer must be a private company with 50 or more employees within 75 miles, or a public agency of any size. You must have worked there at least 12 months and logged at least 1,250 hours in the year before leave starts.8U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 28 – The Family and Medical Leave Act
If you qualify, you get up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per year for a serious health condition, defined as one involving inpatient care or continuing treatment by a healthcare provider.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 2611 – Definitions Prescription medication or therapy with special equipment counts; over-the-counter remedies and bed rest alone do not.10eCFR. 29 CFR 825.113 – Serious Health Condition When you return, your employer must give you back the same job or an equivalent one in pay, benefits, and conditions.8U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 28 – The Family and Medical Leave Act Leave can also be taken intermittently when medically necessary, which is common for recurring treatments like chemotherapy or dialysis.
Firing you for requesting or using FMLA leave is illegal retaliation. So is counting protected leave as an absence under a no-fault attendance policy, adjusting your hours to push you below the eligibility threshold, or treating a leave request as a negative mark in disciplinary decisions.11U.S. Department of Labor. Protection for Individuals Under the FMLA If you came back from medical leave and suddenly started getting written up for issues that never came up before, that pattern is exactly what discrimination investigators look for.
Workplace Injuries
Texas also prohibits firing you for filing a workers’ compensation claim in good faith, hiring an attorney for a claim, or testifying in a workers’ comp proceeding.12Texas Workforce Commission. Wrongful Discharge If your medical condition came from a workplace injury and the termination followed a workers’ comp claim, that’s a separate violation on top of any ADA or FMLA issue.
When Firing You for a Medical Condition Is Legal
None of these laws guarantee permanent job security. The most common lawful scenario is that you cannot perform the essential functions of your job even after reasonable accommodations have been considered. If your employer went through the interactive process in good faith and no accommodation would let you do the core work, termination doesn’t violate the ADA. The word “essential” matters. Your employer can’t pad a job description with marginal tasks and then claim you can’t do the job.
Exhausting your FMLA leave is another turning point. Once you’ve used the full 12 weeks and still can’t return, your employer is no longer required to hold your position.8U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 28 – The Family and Medical Leave Act The ADA doesn’t shut off when the FMLA runs out, though. If your condition qualifies as a disability, your employer still has to consider whether additional leave or another accommodation would be reasonable before firing you. This overlap catches a lot of employers off guard.
An employer may also terminate someone whose condition poses a direct threat to health or safety that can’t be eliminated by a reasonable accommodation.13GovInfo. 42 USC 12113 – Defenses The decision has to rest on an individualized assessment of the actual risk, not on stereotypes about a diagnosis.
And smaller employers sit outside the main federal rules. The ADA, PWFA, and Texas Chapter 21 all require 15 employees; the FMLA requires 50 within 75 miles. If your employer is smaller than those thresholds, the protections above generally do not reach your situation.
What to Do If You Were Fired
Start by preserving everything: medical records, accommodation requests, emails about your condition or leave, performance reviews, and the termination notice. Discrimination claims almost always come down to the paper trail.
You have two filing options in Texas, and a worksharing agreement means filing with one agency automatically cross-files with the other.14U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. How to File a Charge of Employment Discrimination The deadlines differ:
- Texas Workforce Commission Civil Rights Division: 180 days from the termination.
- Equal Employment Opportunity Commission: 300 days, because Texas has a state agency that enforces its own anti-discrimination law.15U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Time Limits for Filing a Charge
The 180-day TWC deadline is the one that sneaks up on people. Six months feels like plenty when you’re recovering from a health crisis, but between appointments and the aftermath of losing a job, it passes fast. Missing it does not necessarily end your federal claim, but it forfeits your state-law remedies.
Keeping Health Coverage After Termination
Losing employer insurance in the middle of a health problem is often the most urgent piece. COBRA requires employers with 20 or more employees to offer you the option to continue your group health coverage after termination.16U.S. Department of Labor. An Employers Guide to Group Health Continuation Coverage Under COBRA You have 60 days from the date your benefits end to elect it.17Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. COBRA Continuation Coverage Questions and Answers Coverage lasts up to 18 months after termination, extending to 29 months if you have a qualifying disability. You pay the full premium plus a 2% administrative fee, which often runs three to four times what you paid as an employee.18U.S. Department of Labor. COBRA Continuation Coverage Expensive, yes, but a gap in coverage during active treatment can cost far more.