40.1-27.1 - Discharge of employee for absence due to work-related injury prohibited. - Virginia Statutes

§ 40.1-27.1. Discharge of employee for absence due to work-related injuryprohibited.

It shall be an unfair employment practice for an employer who has establishedan employment policy of discharging employees who are absent from work for aspecified number of days to include in the computation of an employee's workabsence record any day that such employee is absent from work due to acompensable absence under Title 65.2; provided, that such compensableabsences can be calculated into an employee's work record for purposes ofdischarge after all steps of the excessive absenteeism policy have beenexhausted. An employer shall not be held in violation of this section if theemployee's absence exceeds six months or if the employer's circumstances havechanged during such employee's absence so as to make it impossible orunreasonable not to discharge such employee.

(1989, c. 572.)