Fired After Taking Sick Leave in Maryland? What the Healthy Working Families Act Protects
Most Maryland employees who are fired or disciplined after using sick leave assume they have no legal recourse. Unless the illness was serious enough to qualify for FMLA protection, federal law does not specifically prohibit an employer from counting sick absences against an employee. What many workers do not realize is that Maryland has its own law, the Healthy Working Families Act, that creates enforceable paid sick leave rights and makes retaliation against employees who use those rights unlawful. Wrongful termination lawyers in Maryland handle cases involving HWFA violations regularly, and the employees who contact them often discover that a state law claim they never knew existed applies directly to what happened to them.
The HWFA is not a minor administrative regulation. It is a substantive employment protection with specific coverage requirements, defined permitted uses of leave, express anti-retaliation provisions, and a private right of action that allows employees to sue for damages. Understanding what it covers, how it differs from FMLA protection, and what retaliation looks like under the statute gives Maryland employees a framework to evaluate whether a termination or discipline connected to sick leave was lawful.
What the Healthy Working Families Act Actually Requires
The HWFA requires Maryland employers with 15 or more employees to provide paid sick and safe leave. Employers with fewer than 15 employees must provide unpaid sick and safe leave. Employees accrue one hour of leave for every 30 hours worked, up to a maximum of 40 hours per year. Accrual begins on the first day of employment, and employees may start using accrued leave after 106 calendar days of employment.
Unused leave carries over from year to year, up to the annual cap, unless the employer provides an upfront grant of at least 40 hours of paid leave at the beginning of the year. Employers may limit the total amount of leave used in a single year to 64 hours, and they may limit carryover to 40 hours. Part-time, temporary, and seasonal employees who work at least 12 hours per week for a Maryland employer are covered, which extends the law’s reach to many workers who assume they are excluded.
The leave covers a defined set of purposes: the employee’s own mental or physical illness, injury, or preventive medical care; care for a family member with a mental or physical illness, injury, or need for preventive care; a maternity or paternity leave need; and situations arising from domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking affecting the employee or a family member. The “safe leave” component of the HWFA is specifically designed to protect employees who need time away from work to address domestic violence situations, obtain protective orders, seek medical attention, or make safety plans.
What Employers Are Prohibited From Doing Under the HWFA
The HWFA prohibits employers from taking adverse action against an employee for requesting or using accrued sick and safe leave. Adverse action under the statute includes termination, demotion, suspension, discipline, reduction in hours or pay, negative performance evaluations, or any other action that would dissuade a reasonable employee from using leave they were legally entitled to take.
The statute also prohibits employers from counting HWFA leave as an absence under an attendance policy or point system. This provision addresses one of the most common forms of retaliation in practice: an employer that does not directly fire an employee for sick leave but instead counts each protected absence toward a termination threshold in an attendance point system. If the absences that pushed an employee to the termination threshold were HWFA-protected, the employer cannot lawfully use them to support the firing.
Employers may require reasonable documentation for sick leave that exceeds three consecutive days, but they cannot require a physician’s note for every single absence or impose documentation requirements so burdensome that they effectively discourage use of the leave. Denying leave based on inadequate advance notice when the need for leave was unforeseeable is also prohibited. A Maryland employee who called in sick on the morning of an illness and was disciplined for failing to provide prior notice is in a fact pattern that may support a retaliation claim under the HWFA.
How the HWFA Differs From FMLA Protection and Why Both Can Apply
The Family and Medical Leave Act provides up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave for serious health conditions and certain family and military leave situations. FMLA coverage requires the employer to have 50 or more employees within 75 miles and the employee to have worked for the employer for at least 12 months with at least 1,250 hours in the preceding year. An illness that does not rise to the level of a “serious health condition” under the FMLA’s definition does not qualify for federal protection.
The HWFA fills a meaningful gap in this framework. It covers employers with as few as 15 employees, it does not require a minimum tenure or hours threshold beyond the 106-day usage waiting period, and it protects leave for conditions that do not meet the FMLA’s serious health condition standard. A common cold, a child’s doctor appointment, a dental procedure, or a mental health day for an employee without a formally diagnosed condition may not trigger FMLA protection but is squarely within the HWFA’s protected uses.
For employees who qualify for both FMLA and HWFA protection on the same leave, both statutes can apply simultaneously. An employer who terminates an employee after a serious illness leave may face both a federal FMLA retaliation claim and a state HWFA retaliation claim, with separate filing requirements and separate remedies. Having both theories available strengthens the overall position in a wrongful termination case.
Building the Evidence in an HWFA Retaliation Case
HWFA retaliation cases often turn on the same types of evidence that support any retaliation claim: timing, pretext, and comparator treatment. An employee who used HWFA leave regularly and was then given a sudden negative performance review or placed on a performance improvement plan has a timing argument. An employee who was fired for attendance under a point system where the protected sick days were the decisive factor has a direct statutory violation argument.
Comparator evidence matters here as well. If other employees who missed similar numbers of days for non-HWFA reasons were not disciplined or terminated, the differential treatment supports the inference that the protected leave, not the absences themselves, was the real basis for the adverse action. Documenting how the attendance policy was applied to different employees over the same period is part of the evidentiary foundation that employment attorneys build from.
Records an employee should preserve include: copies of any leave requests submitted in writing, HR or supervisor responses to those requests, payroll records showing accrued and used leave, attendance policy documentation from the employee handbook, any disciplinary notices or performance reviews from the period after leave was used, and any communications from supervisors or HR about the absences. These records exist at the time of termination and disappear quickly once system access ends.
Filing Deadlines and Available Remedies Under the HWFA
HWFA complaints can be filed with the Maryland Department of Labor’s Employment Standards Service Unit. Employees also have a private right of action in Maryland circuit court. The statute of limitations for HWFA claims is three years from the date of the violation, which is longer than the 180-day MCCR deadline that governs discrimination claims and provides more runway to seek legal counsel before filing.
Successful HWFA claims can result in reinstatement, back pay for lost wages and benefits, treble damages equal to three times back pay if the violation was willful, and attorney’s fees and costs. The treble damages provision is significant because it increases the potential recovery substantially in cases where an employer knowingly violated the statute, and it creates a meaningful incentive structure that employment attorneys consider when evaluating whether to bring these claims.
Speak With Wrongful Termination Lawyers in Maryland About Your HWFA Rights
Maryland’s Healthy Working Families Act creates rights that exist independent of any federal statute, and many Maryland employees who were terminated or disciplined after using sick leave have valid claims under it without knowing the law exists. The three-year statute of limitations gives more time than many other employment claims, but the evidence that matters most, internal records, attendance logs, and contemporaneous communications, exists only in the immediate aftermath of the termination.
The Mundaca Law Firm’s wrongful termination lawyers in Maryland evaluate HWFA retaliation claims alongside FMLA, discrimination, and other employment law theories to ensure that every viable legal basis is identified and pursued. If you were fired or disciplined in connection with sick leave in Maryland and are not certain whether your rights were violated, a consultation with an employment attorney is the most reliable way to find out. Contact The Mundaca Law Firm to discuss your situation and understand your options.
