Work Leave for Addiction Treatment

The question is whether your job has to hold while you get treatment, and the fear is that asking will be the thing that ends it. Federal family leave can cover time in treatment when you and the employer both qualify. It does not cover an absence caused by use itself. Ask human resources which of those this time off would be. Do not stop alcohol or a benzodiazepine to avoid the conversation.

If withdrawal has become a seizure, collapse, or trouble breathing, call 911. For a mental health crisis, call or text 988. Stopping a benzodiazepine abruptly, or cutting it too fast, can cause seizures. A sudden stop after chronic heavy drinking can be life-threatening. Where that care belongs is in detox at home versus medical care.

Who can use the leave

An employee is eligible after at least 12 months with that employer, with at least 1,250 hours of service in the 12 months before leave starts, at a location where the employer has at least 50 employees within 75 miles. Private-sector employers are covered when they employ 50 or more employees in 20 or more workweeks in the current or previous calendar year. Public agencies are covered regardless of the number of employees, and the employee tests still apply. A covered employer does not skip those tests.

Eligible employees may take up to 12 workweeks in a 12-month period for their own serious health condition. Leave can be one block. When it is medically necessary, it can be separate blocks or a reduced schedule. That path sometimes covers treatment appointments. It is not a calendar you design alone. The leave is unpaid. Whether paid time you have already earned runs at the same time, and how the health premium is collected, is in unpaid leave for rehab. A disability paycheck is a different benefit, in short-term disability.

You do not have to say the name of the law. You do have to give enough information that the employer can see the leave may be covered. The employer may require medical certification and must allow at least 15 calendar days. Some states add their own leave laws. If the fight is about your particular handbook, the Wage and Hour Division or a lawyer is the next call. Booking travel around the dates is in flying to treatment.

Treatment can qualify. Use itself does not

Substance abuse may be a serious health condition if the ordinary medical conditions are met. Leave may be taken only for treatment by a health care provider, or by a provider of health care services on referral by a health care provider. Absence because of the employee's use of the substance, rather than for treatment, does not qualify.

An employer may not act against an employee because the employee took leave for treatment. If the employer has an established policy, applied in a nondiscriminatory way and communicated to all employees, that provides for termination for substance abuse in certain circumstances, the employee may be terminated under that policy whether or not the employee is on leave. An employee may also take leave to care for a covered family member who is in treatment. What a program may tell an employer is a different rule, in privacy and confidentiality.

Disability law is not twelve weeks

The employment rules apply to employers with 15 or more employees. That threshold is not the family-leave threshold. A workplace can be covered by one and not the other.

A qualified individual with a disability does not include an employee or applicant who is currently engaging in the illegal use of drugs, when the employer acts on the basis of that use. A person who is no longer engaging in illegal use, and who has completed supervised rehabilitation or is participating in it, is not excluded by that sentence. Participation alone is not coverage. The person still has to meet the definition of disability. Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous are examples of a supervised program.

Illegal use of drugs does not include a drug taken under the supervision of a licensed health care professional, or other uses authorized by federal law. Prescribed methadone or buprenorphine sits in that supervised category. Do not stop it to avoid a conversation with a boss. What those medicines are for is in medication for addiction.

Employers may prohibit illegal drug use and alcohol use at work, and may hold an employee who uses drugs illegally, or an employee with alcoholism, to the same conduct standards as other employees, even when the poor performance is related to the drug use or the alcoholism. A failed test is its own problem, in a failed workplace drug test.

The law may protect a qualified employee with alcoholism who meets the definition of disability. It does not protect a person currently engaging in illegal drug use. Absenteeism or on-the-job accidents need not be excused when the same conduct would not be excused for others. If the conduct is current illegal drug use, there is no duty to provide an accommodation. If the conduct is tied to alcoholism and the discipline is not termination, an accommodation can be separate from the discipline, such as a modified schedule to attend a mutual-help program. In one example, absent undue hardship, the employer must grant a month of leave to enter rehabilitation. That example is not a rule that every month-off request must be granted.

The law does not require an employee assistance program or a last-chance agreement. If the workplace has that benefit, what to ask before you describe substance use is in EAP and substance use. You do not have to announce a diagnosis to coworkers. What you might tell a peer is in telling coworkers. Cues on the job after you return are in triggers at work. The job after treatment is in returning to work. Clinicians face a related set of workplace rules in healthcare workers.

Search FindTreatment.gov for a level of care. Call or text (800) 653-9376 if you want help finding that care. Comparing programs is in choosing between programs. What the first days look like is in the first 72 hours. A denial from a health plan is in insurance appeals.

Additional Resources

Sources cited on this page:

• U.S. DOL Fact Sheet #28: The Family and Medical Leave Act
• eCFR: 29 CFR 825.119, leave for treatment of substance abuse
• EEOC: Titles I and V of the ADA (statutory text)
• EEOC: Questions and Answers on the ADA Amendments Act final rule
• EEOC: Applying Performance and Conduct Standards to Employees with Disabilities
• FDA: Boxed warning on benzodiazepines
• NIAAA Core Resource: Alcohol Use Disorder, From Risk to Diagnosis to Recovery
• SAMHSA FindTreatment.gov
• 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline

Common Questions