Employers in the state of California are barred from interfering with or retaliating against employees who assert their legal rights under the FMLA, CFRA, and related statutes. In most cases, this includes not being able to fire an employee who has taken a valid leave of absence under one of those statutes. Nevertheless, there are certain exceptions to this rule, such as:
Employees who take an invalid leave
Employees who are subject to company-wide layoffs
Key Employees (among the highest-paid 10% of all employees of the employer) may be denied job restoration if their return creates an undue level of hardship or injury to the employer